You and I
by ashleymarieee19
Summary: It's funny how sometimes you think your life is turned upside down, but in the blink of an eye, it can be turned back around. And you realize that what you've wanted has been in front of you this whole time. READ AND REVIEW PLEASE :)
1. 1) Gabriella

"What do you wanna do tonight?"

"I'm not sure, anything in mind?" I close my locker and turn towards Emily.

She was about to say something, but her brother interrupted her, grabbing her phone out of her hand.

Immediately she grabbed it back, "what the fuck?!"

"Mine's dead and I gotta call mom."

"Why?"

"I want one of those sandwiches from that place and she's by there because she went to the mall with grandma, we were texting about it before, but my phone died at the beginning of last period and I gotta make sure she's gonna get me one."

Emily rolled her eyes and handed the phone back to her brother.

And then she looked over at me. "Ben's having a party tonight. We should go. His parties are always fun."

"Eh, I don't know."

"Come on, Gabriella! I'm sure Brady will wanna go too. We can all go, I'll third wheel of course as usual. I heard everyone's going."

We both try to tune her brother out as he's talking.

He's loud.

"Fine, but I'm not going to stay long."

"Fine, okay," Emily nods. And then grabs her phone back from her brother. "I hope you told her to get me one, too."

Her brother laughs, "nah, I told her to get one for Brie, though."

Emily rolls her eyes, "stop."

"Stop what?

"Calling her that! She hates it and you know that."

"Yeah, but I love it," he tells her.

He looks over at me and give me a smile as he opens his locker and stuffs his book in there.

Troy Bolton.

Emily and Troy are fraternal twins so they don't look scary alike but they're twins so of course they do. Emily's gorgeous and Troy's... he's fucking hot. I've known them since the 4th grade. Naturally Emily and I are closer... best friends. But obviously Troy's mixed in there. Not really a best friend. More like an annoying brother who's constantly around. I mean, he's nice and everything, but like a brother, he annoys Emily and then annoys me in the process of that.

"What are you losers doing tonight?"

"Ben's party, how about you?" Emily asks him, "Jenna, Kristy or Lara? Maybe Trish?"

Troy laughs, "oh, you're just so fucking funny, sis."

It was kind of funny. And true. Troy's a certified player. Well, I guess maybe not since I think you have to be in a relationship to be a player, but he just dates around a lot. Not dates, just hooks up. New girl every weekend as far as I'm concerned. I don't know nor do I care.

"You going too, Brie?"

"I guess."

"With that douche bag boyfriend or yours?"

Another thing- Troy hates Brady and I've never really understood why. But the moment we got together 6 months ago, he's had nothing nice to say about him. Or our relationship. "Yes, he'll be there, too."

I don't even get mad at him anymore cause I'm used to it. Do I enjoy him calling my boyfriend names? Of course not.

But I just let it go.

"Stop calling him names," Emily defends him, "she never says anything about your girlfriends."

"They're not my girlfriends."

"Even worse," she rolls her eyes, "now, if you'll excuse us, we're going home."

Troy nods, "yeah, me too and you're giving me a ride. Luke bailed during lunch. Do you mind stopping by 7/11 on the way home?"

The question was directed at me since I'm the one who drove.

He drives me absolutely mad sometimes because of his stupid charm and the way he's so confident and out there and doesn't give a shit what anyone says, and because he's in your face a lot too. Just really talkative. But for some reason I can't say no to him. There's a little soft spot for Troy Bolton and it's because in 7th grade when some girl went crazy on me saying she was going to slap me if she ever saw me talk to her boyfriend again, he stepped in and protected me and defended me and I'll never forget that day. All my other friends who were standing around me said nothing. I defended myself but having him step in and back me up meant a lot to me.

I do give it back to him, though, and half the time, he does annoy me. But I could never hate Troy Bolton.

Or leave him here at school.

"Fine."

"Shotgun," he calls, causing Emily to roll her eyes.

Before I even pull out of my parking space, Brady came up to my car causing me to roll down my window to talk to him.

The second he saw Troy, you could tell he was taken aback. "Where you going?"

"To their house."

He peeks his head inside my car and sees her in the back and gives her a smile. "Oh, I didn't know you were back there. Thought you were going to the library to work on your report. I'm headed there now."

What?

"Oh, um, no I just checked out the books."

"Alright," he says and then looks back at me, "you guys going to Ben's tonight? I can pick you guys up?"

"Yes!" Emily says before I can even say anything, "we're going. Pick us up around 8. And don't be late. We know how you can be."

Brady laughs and then gives me a quick kiss before leaving. It was an awkward through the window kiss that I probably would have skipped to be honest. But he went for it, so I had to go for it

Troy turned back to Emily when he was gone. "What the fuck was that?"

"What?"

"Why are you asking him to pick you up for a party? You're not dating them, Em. Let them do their own thing."

She looks offended. "Oh my gosh, we're all friends here."

"It's fine," I step in. It is fine most of the time. Lately, though, she's always been around and it's not annoying but Brady and I do need our alone time so you know, it's not ideal. But Emily's my best friend. So whatever. "You guys are working on a report together?"

"I mean, we got the same topic, so figured we'd bounce ideas off each other."

"Oh, yeah, that's smart," I tell her.

I'm not a jealous girl.

And I'm definitely not jealous with my best friend.

So whatever.

* * *

I've never been a big partier.

And it's not like I wanna be stuck at home on a Friday night.

But I just don't necessarily want to be at a party.

My perfect Friday night would include some really good dinner, laying on the beach talking, hanging out, laughing, and then grabbing a hot chocolate or an ice cream. Some sort of dessert. With some good people. Or my boyfriend. Or just my best friend. People I want to hang out with.

Parties are okay. You can hang out with people, but you're also around drunks.

And I just can't handle that.

It give me anxiety knowing that people are gonna go home drunk and I don't know if they're driving or not.

Are they going to walk home? Will they be okay? Do they have a ride? It's all that runs through my mind during parties that I hate being at them.

"You sure you don't want a drink?"

"Yeah," I tell Brady.

"Alright, let me give this to Em," he says before making his way over to her by the beer pong table.

She's waiting for her turn and she's already two drinks in. This shit happens all the time we come to a a party. I feel responsible and I'm gonna have to keep an eye out for her and it makes me so annoyed. She's not doing anything wrong necessarily, but it's the exactly reason I hate coming to parties.

All of a sudden, Emily's laughing. "Brady! Oh my gosh!"

I walk over to them, curious what was going on. "What's up?"

Emily turns to me, still laughing. "he spilled this whole drink. Not on me, but still. He literally just made it for me."

It's not funny at all. I don't get it.

I've only been here thirty minutes and I already really want to go home.

As I sit through two games of beer pong and talk to Paige Brier for a bit, I'm praying and hoping that Em and Brady want to leave soon.

"Hey can we go?"

"What why?" Emily looks confused. "It's fun!"

"Yeah, Gabs, lighten up. I'm not even drunk and I'm having fun."

I don't even care. I want to go home.

And I'm going to go right right now. "Alright, well you guys stay, I'm gonna go."

"Okay!" They both say waaaay too quickly.

Well, of course. I'm a bored and getting rid of me will be so much better for them. They won't have to think about me sitting in a corner being annoyed the whole night. So, whatever, I don't take it too personally. Actually, I kind of chuckle at that and then make my way out back.

And sit on the steps of Ben's front porch while I try to think of who I can call to pick me up.

My parents are out.

Sophia and Morgan are out of town. My brother's away at school.

Fuck. I find myself dialing Troy's number.

But I don't hold my breath.


	2. 2) Troy

"Wanna go up to my room?"

"Nah," I say as my lips move from Kacie's neck back to her lips, "let's stay here."

I know what going up to her room means.

And I don't want any part of that cause that's not what this is about. It's just about hooking up, having fun... not going all the way.

All of a sudden, my phone is vibrating in my jeans.

So, I push Kacie off, gently of course, and I answer the phone as soon as I see it's Gabriella.

"Hello?"

Right away, you could tell she didn't want to be calling me, but she had no other choice. She wants to leave a party and she wants to leave now and she wants a ride. As she's saying these words to me, I look over at Kacie who looks more annoyed than mad that I'm answering the phone during our make out session. I didn't give a fuck, though. If it was my mom, I wouldn't have answered. But it was Gabriella. I had to know what she wanted.

I agree to give her a ride. She's like a member of the family. I'm not gonna make her sit there if she's miserable.

"I gotta go," I get up.

"What? Why?" She follows me out of the living room.

"My friend needs a ride," I tell her.

She stands in front of her door with her arms crossed. "Gabriella Montez, really?"

What does that even mean? She saw her name pop up? "Yeah, sorry, but she's stranded..."

"You're leaving me for some girl? Seriously?"

"It's not some girl," I tell her feeling a bit annoyed. "It's Gabriella."

Kacie McDonnell is just some girl. Gabriella isn't. Gabriella Montez has been in my life since I was in the 4th grade and I accidentally made her trip. My sister and I were the new kids and that first day, I made her fall. She thought I did it on purpose so she hated me, but my sister took advantage of it and "defended" her against me that day so they became friends. But she doesn't hate me. She never did. We get along great, she's like a member of the family and I'm going to be there for her if she needs me to be. After all, she drove an hour to pick me up once because I was sick as a dog.

That's what you do for friends.

Especially friends who are your sister's best friends and who your mom loves like another daughter.

When I get to Ben's house, she's sitting on the steps of his front porch looking down at her phone and pretty miserable.

But when she sees me, she looks relieved.

"Ten bucks."

"Shut up," she laughs as she gets in the car, "thanks."

"You're welcome."

She drops her purse on the floor and buckles up before taking a deep breath, "I hope I didn't pull you away from your first victim this weekend."

I laugh because that's a running joke with us. They're on my case about hooking up with girls left and right, every day of the weekend. But that's not true. It's not every weekend. How exhausting would that be? But it was true this weekend. "Kacie will live."

"Kacie McDonnell?" She asks, "oh come on, Troy, she's fucking annoying."

"She's okay," I shrug.

"I don't even know how you do it."

I come to a stop and glance over at her, "do what?"

She shrugs, "the girls. The non exclusivity of it all. Don't you ever just want a girlfriend, someone you can call and hang out with and be there for you?"

"Yeah and then fight with and have to answer to her if I just wanna grab a burger with my boys?"

"You can still do that," she says.

The thing is, I do want a girlfriend. I think it'll be nice. It's all bullshit when I give excuses as to why I don't want one. I just haven't found the right one yet. I'm 17, 18 in a month. I don't need to be tied down. High school is all about drama and I don't need to get involved in that. But it's not because I'm scared of commitment or anything, people think that since I hook up with girls, but it's just one of those things where I haven't found someone who's just captured my attention long enough to want to make them mine. And I cover it up with saying I don't want to be settled down.

I change the subject because I don't want to talk about this anymore.

"So party's no fun?"

"I don't even know why I came," she leans back, "probably because I had nothing else going on."

"Yeah, Morgan's out of town."

She nods, "exactly. She's the only who will sit at home with me on a Friday night or watch a movie instead. I think maybe I just hate everyone at our school."

I laugh. There are a lot of annoying people there.

"There's nothing wrong with not wanting to party," I tell her, "no one even gives a shit. It's just your stupid boyfriend who makes a big deal out of it sometimes. You hardly see me at parties and people don't say anything to me. It doesn't mean you're not cool or whatever. It's dumb."

"Why do you hate Brady so much?" She asks me all of a sudden.

I mean, she's asked before but I just shrug it off and don't really give her an answer.

But she seems serious this time.

"I don't hate him," I start off, "he's just annoying."

"But why?"

Why is he annoying?

Oh I have a long list of why I think he's annoying. Because he thinks he's the shit. He thinks because his parents are loaded that he's entitled to everything and anything. And why Gabriella doesn't see that is beyond me. He is seriously so fucking annoying, I can't even put it into words. Mostly, though, because Gabriella deserves better. Way better. And seeing him with her makes me hate him even more.

"He's just a spoiled rich kid," I shrug, "I think you can do better."

"We're all spoiled rich kids," she laughs.

"No, we're not. We're rich, but we're not spoiled," I tell her, "he's entitled. He think he can have whatever he wants, whenever."

She's quiet for a moment, just looking out the window.

I shouldn't insult him.

Sure, I dislike him, but she's my friend so I gotta be respectful. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"Are you hungry? I'm hungry."

"Sure," she tells me, "whatever you want."

Mexican it is.

* * *

"Do you remember the first time we came here?" Gabriella looked around the place.

"Not really."

"How can you not remember?"

I shrug, grabbing a chip and dipping it in the salsa.

She laughed, grabbing a couple of chips choosing to skip the salsa, "it was your mom, me, you and Sarah and we were in 7th grade and Emily had to stay behind because she was in trouble for getting an F on her math test."

"Yes," I laugh, remembering now. Of course I remember that day. "And Sarah fell face first and we couldn't stop laughing so my mom took our food away."

"That made me laugh even more," she tells me, "like, who takes our food away?"

"Rebecca Bolton, that's who."

This restaurant is a staple in our family.

We come all the time. If someone wants to celebrate their birthday here or just for a random dinner one night. Or lunch. It's so fucking good. And the Bolton/Montez family frequent it quite often. All of us together or apart. But we love it. Ever since my mom brought us that day. We only ate half our food but the half we did eat was delicious enough for us to want to come back. So we did. Over and over and over again.

And tonight.

"Remember that time my mom almost choked on her rice?"

"And no one was even paying attention?"

"YES!" Gabriella laughs, leaning back against the booth, "she was so mad at all of us."

I stopped laughing, but Gabriella kept laughing, remembering that moment.

Ad I just sat here and stared.

It's hard to not look at Gabriella when she's around. She's effortlessly beautiful. She doesn't cake make up on. She doesn't over do her hairstyles. Or her outfits. She's... simple. But she's beautiful. Stunning, actually. And when she laughs, it takes you back a bit because it makes you find her even more attractive than she already is which seems impossible, but it's actually very possible. Because that's what I'm thinking about right now.

I think about it often even though I shouldn't. She's like a member of the family, but God, is she beautiful.

And smart. And funny. And the most caring person.

Which is why I fucking hate so much that someone like Brady, who won't even make eye contact with the valet is dating her. He has her.

"You ready to order?"

"Hmm?" I snap out of it and realize the waitress is here, "oh, um, yeah."

Gabriella looks at me a little weirdly but proceeds with her order. Two cheese enchiladas, rice and beans. Like always.

And I do my usual, too. "Steak fajitas, please."

"Thanks for picking me up," Gabriella tells me as she brings her coke in front of her before taking a sip, "I'm sure you'd much rather be at Kacie's doing God knows what than sitting here with boring old me eating Mexican food on a Friday night."

"You're not boring," I laugh.

"Oh please," she laughs, "I know I'm boring. I mean, I think I'm funny and can carry conversations, but I'm definitely boring."

"Why?"

"Why what?" She looks confused at my question.

So, I reword it. "Why do you think you're boring? I don't get it."

She shrugs, "because I am. If someone called me up at 11 pm and was like, lets drive down the coast and go to the beach or something, I definitely wouldn't do it. I don't even like skipping school at lunch. You're just trying to be nice, you know I'm boring."

"But you're not," I argue, "our trip to Hawaii... you're adventurous. You're just not adventurous during the night."

"I guess, but still..."

"Just because you don't party or wanna be out til 1 am doesn't mean you're boring."

She gives me a small smile, "thanks."

Gabriella is that girl that has her head in the books, doesn't smoke weed or drink really and goes out to parties only on occasions. But you wouldn't classify her a "nerd" or a "loser" because of her looks. She's gorgeous. Everyone thinks so. And also because most people don't really know that. They think they know Gabriella Montez, but they don't really. Because at school, she hangs out with Brady's crowd. She's popular in her own right.

But outside of school, she's this better version. This girl that wants to go to Brown and become a pediatrician and have five kids and two dogs.

"Are you guys going to Palm Springs next weekend?"

"Nah," I tell her "change of plans."

"Oh what happened?" She asks me as she reaches for some more chips.

I reach for some too opting to skip the salsa this time around, "my mom and dad are flying out to New York for my aunt and Emily wants to go to Santa Barbara for the weekend with Kristina and her family so we decided to just go another week, obviously, since they can't."

We have a house in Palm Springs that we often visit.

It's just a nice little getaway. It's the dessert so it's a contrast from Del Mar and the beach.

Sometimes, a few friends and I go down there to just chill.

And this year when we all went to Coachella, we stayed there. So, it definitely comes in handy for times like those. And just to get away from this town when we've had a little too much or it's a little too cold or we just feel like getting away.

"I love that house."

"Me too," I tell her, "it's great."

"Yeah, the perfect little getaway. And every year you go to Coachella, you don't need to worry about where to stay."

I laugh, "yeah, exactly. It was so fun this year."

A group of us went to Coachella this year and it was one of the best times.

Only half of us were there for the actual artists, the other half just cared about the vibe and the stigma that comes with Coachella. Emily was jeweled out, their other friend made a flower crown, and one of them barely listened to any of the music. I get it's an experience, but why pay money if you don't even like the music that's playing? Gabriella and I on the other hand... plus a few of my friends actually went to the see the artists for their music.

The whole three days, she wore shorts, some plain t shirt and her hair was either up in a bun or a pony tail.

She didn't give a shit about dressing cute.

So, for three days, we kind of all split up. Emily and her crew walked around, took pictures, saw one or two artists they actually knew of.

And Gabriella, myself and two of my friends listened to the artists we wanted to see.

"We're going again this year."

"Yes," she says, "the line up is soooo good. I can't wait."

I know I annoy her sometimes and I drive her crazy, but it's all in good fun. I push her buttons on purpose sometimes and that's really only when my sister's around because I push hers, too. But Gabriella and I are more alike than her and my sister, for sure.

Sometimes, I don't even understand why they're best friends sometimes because they're so different from each other.

"Emily's not going," I laugh, "I refused to buy her a ticket when they came out."

"Which is pretty fucked up."

I shrug, grabbing some more chips, "I'm trying to go to coachella and listen to music. Not trying to worry about my sister and where she's at and if she's talking to random guys because she's not interested in any of the artists."

Gabriella nods, "yeah, okay, I can see that. She wants me to boycott is and not tag along."

"But you had so much fun last year."

"Yeah, maybe I'll just tell her I'm conveniently going out of town that weekend. She doesn't have to know. I won't post pictures."

She's kidding.

But I am excited about Coachella this time around.

Gabriella pretends to hate me sometimes, not stand me, but we get along. With or without Emily around. And this year, it'll be me, her, my best friend Andrew, her friend Morgan, and my other friend Chris who's away at UCLA but will obviously drive over for it.

It'll be fun. I'm excited.

I'm even more excited about our food coming out soon because I'm starving.

I like how this night turned out after all.


	3. 3) Gabriella

"You're leaving?"

"Yeah, sorry," Brady tells me, grabbing his sweatshirt, "I'm going to dinner with some of the guys."

"I didn't know that," I tell him, feeling a bit annoyed.

He shrugs, like it's not a big deal to him. It's not a big deal, but it's just a little annoying. "Well, I didn't know you were under the impression I was going to stay all night. I mean, we did our homework, we watched an episode of Criminal Minds."

I don't really say anything. I just sit here, flipping through the channels for something good to watch. I'm annoyed with him at the moment.

"Why are you mad?"

"I'm not mad, but when I asked if you wanted to come over to hang out, I didn't know you had other plans as well."

"I'm sorry, didn't know you meant the whole night."

Obviously not the whole night. It's Sunday. It's a school night.

But I thought he would come over, we could do our science homework together, watch some TV or just hang out and then go out to dinner because I'm craving some pizza from Souplantation. Ha. I guess not, though. I mean, I'm not mad. It's totally fine he wants to go and hang out with his friends, too, but letting me know would have been nice because this whole time, I was thinking we were gonna go get dinner and I really want dinner.

"It's fine."

"We good?" He smiles at me.

"Yeah, we're good," I get up and walk him to the door, "text me later."

He kisses me and agrees, "will do, babe."

Sometimes, I wonder why I'm dating Brady Smith because on paper, we're complete opposites.

But that one night almost seven months ago, something happened and ever since then, we're been together. I mean, it's not this can't live without him relationship, but it's good. I'm happy. He's attentiveness. He's caring. He's nice. He's funny. He's gorgeous. There's not much more I could ask for.

Except that feeling you're supposed to have when you're with someone you like.

That spark.

That feeling that when you see them, you instantly smile.

Or when you're with them, you feel content. Like there's nothing that could ruin it. Being able to do absolutely nothing with them.

I don't know if it's asking for too much.

So, I try to push it out of my head and just think about the fact that we're in high school and maybe we're not supposed to feel this way in high school. We're young, we have so much ahead of us and being able to just hang out and make each other laugh should be worth it.

As he's driving off, I call Emily to see if she wants to come with me.

But nope.

She's going to dinner with her cousin Kristina.

So then I call my friend Morgan and she agrees because she's craving their blueberry muffins.

Thank God for Morgan.

* * *

"Is there a Souplantation in Rhode Island?"

"I don't think so."

Morgan's eyes widen, "oh my gosh, what're you going to do?"

I laugh, "okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves. I haven't even applied yet, Morg."

She rolls her eyes as she tears her pizza in half and dips one piece of it in ranch, "okay, but you're going to get in. I know it, you know it, the neighbors know it. Everyone knows it. And you're gonna be over there all the time craving these delicious slices of pizza."

"I think I'll manage," I grab a slice and also dip it in ranch, "but please, let's not jinx it."

"It's not, you're getting in."

"Oh, so you're perfectly okay with me saying you're getting into MIT?"

Morgan laughs, "okay, fine. But that's different because you've had a perfect grade point average all through high school. I got a B in CHEM!"

I get her point. But still. "You made it up."

"Imagine if we both get in, though, we'll only be an hour away from each other."

"That would be so great."

Morgan Brown is one of my best friends in the world.

I think Emily's my number one strictly because I've known her longer. Because Morgan and I are one in the same. She's just a really great friend and someone I want in my life forever. We share a lot of the same interests and goals and morals and I love hanging out with her. So the fact that she applied to MIT, an hour away from Brown, I'm stoked. If I ever feel homesick, I can just drive to her and be reminded of home.

I've known Morgan since middle school. We met in 7th grade during math and the rest is history. She's one of my favorite people in the world.

"Are you busy three weekends from now?"

"I don't think so," I laugh at the fact that she didn't just give me dates, "why, what's up?"

"My mom and I are going to Cambridge for the weekend."

Okay, I need dates.

And I think she's inviting me, right?

"I mean, I don't think it'll change my decision of wanting to apply there, but we wanna go and check it out, get a feel for it. The third weekend of October, it's a long weekend so thought we'd go and we want you to come. We'll head to Providence for the day and check that out. Yeah?"

"Well, I gotta ask my parents, but I'd be so down," I tell her, "yeah, that sounds like so much fun."

"Right? My mom's already making an itinerary."

I love her mom.

And going on a small trip like this with them sounds exciting and fun.

"Remember when we went to San Francisco for the weekend and she was walking around with a clipboard, checking off everything we did."

"YES!" Morgan laughs, "she's bringing that clipboard."

"She's so great," I laugh.

The Browns are some of my favorite people. I'm closer to the Boltons as a whole, but I love the Browns. I know if I was ever kicked out of my house or anything like that, if I needed some place to crash, they'd be there in a heartbeat for me. Her mom and dad are the nicest and her younger sister Tessa is like the younger sister I always wished I had. Throughout the years, Morgan has been on vacation with my family and I've been on vacations with their family and we've even been on some together. I love that. I love that my family is friends with my friends family. It makes everything in life so much more fun.

I pushed my empty plate to the side and got up to get some more food.

This place is so great.

When my brother was in town and not away at UCLA, we'd come almost every Sunday. It was our little tradition.

So, I'm trying to keep up with it.

"How are things with Brady?" Morgan asks me as I come back from grabbing some ice cream.

"Good," I shrug.

"I just feel like I haven't seen much of you guys."

Yeah, around school. I know what she means. We've both just been busy these past couple of weeks. I mean, school kind of just started. Well, we're almost a month in, but still, we're getting adjusted. And projects are being thrown at us already. Plus, we have a different schedule, no classes whatsoever together. And we take different routes to class. But we do have lunch together some days. And we always meet up before our last period.

We're still hanging out after school and on weekends and stuff, but it has been cut down a bit. Like I said, we've both just been busy and stuff.

Me, with schoolwork. Him with schoolwork and club soccer.

"Yeah, well we've both been busy."

"What are you guys going to do if you guys make it another year?" She asks.

And for the first time, I actually think about it.

I hadn't thought about it. I hadn't thought about the fact that the only school he's applying to that's close to me is Harvard. But it's not even the number one school he wants to go to. He has a good shot, though, since his dad is an alumni and is chummy with people there.

But I honestly have no idea. We haven't talked about that. Should we be talking about that? Should that be a factor in how we apply to school?

"I mean, we haven't really talked about it," I tell her, "should we?"

"Well, it's been 6 months."

"Maybe because we haven't filled out actual applications yet. It's all just talk."

Morgan shrugs, "still. I think you guys should."

It's been half a year. I think we do owe it to ourselves to at least have a conversation about it.

But now all I'm thinking about is if we're even going to be together then. I think six months in, you're supposed to know if you see a future with them. And the weird thing is, I don't want to break up with Brady at all. I'm happy. But I try to look in the future with him, and I just don't see anything. I don't see what normal people in six months relationships see. And I don't know if that's completely normal or not a good thing.

"Do you like Brady?"

"What?" Morgan looks at me weirdly, "yeah, he's fine. Why?"

I shrug, "I don't know. My brother's like whatever about it, but Troy... he likes hates the guy even though he says he doesn't. Just doesn't like him."

She laughs, "my favorite thing is Troy rolling his eyes in Government every time he talks. No offense."

"Why don't I see what he sees?"

"What do you mean?" She asks me, "see what?"

"I don't know. I fucking hate to admit it because Troy is so annoying sometimes, but we're so much alike. More than Emily and I and ever since I've known him, we've always disliked the same people. We always thought the same people and things were annoying. So, I don't know why I don't with him."

Morgan laughs, "well, you're dating him, first of all. That's probably why."

I shake my head, "no, even before..."

"I don't know," she shrugs, "I mean, I get it, no offense but Brady can just be... obnoxious. Like he's better than everyone."

"Yeah?"

"He's totally nice to me and always has been."

I guess, but am I being blind? Am I blind to how he actually is? I mean, Brady is like royalty at our school and it's not because he's so cool and nice and everything. It's because he's rich as fuck and good looking and people just gravitate towards that.

And I guess I did, too.

But he's nice to me. He's been so good to me. and he's caring. And see.

"Don't worry what other people say," Morgan tells me, "if you're happy then that's all that matters. He's been nothing but good to you."

"Yeah, you're right," I let it go.

"I'm gonna go get some ice cream," she gets up.

Whatever.

I push it out of my mind.


	4. 4) Troy

"Did Em ask if you can watch Molly this weekend?" I ask Gabriella during Calculus.

"She didn't," she shakes her head, "where are you going?"

I scribble down the problem our teacher has put on the board and then turn towards her, "LA for the night. Gonna crash at Chris'."

She ignored me for a minute.

If there's one thing you shouldn't do around Gabriella, it's talk to her in class. Especially Calculus. She's like a math whiz so she's always focused, always paying attention. And that's exactly why I sat next to her the first day. So she could help me out in here.

When she was done with the daily warm up, she turned towards me, "I can watch her."

"Great. I'm leaving around 5 tomorrow."

"You want me to go pick her up or will you drop her off?"

i shrug, not really having an answer for her. "Well, are you busy around five? If not, I'll drop her off before I leave."

She shakes her head.

But then realizes she is busy. "Oh, I'm going with Morgan to her eye doctor appointment because she needs new glasses and she's getting her eyes dilated so she probably won't be able to drive back. But I can just go get her after."

"Okay, yeah, that's fine. You have a key, right?"

"Yes," she nods, opening her binder to take out her homework, "what time is Em leaving to Santa Barbara? Right after school?"

"I think so, yeah. My parents are leaving around 12 that day."

She agrees.

And now I feel better about it.

Because my parents gave me the responsibility of being in charge of the dog since Emily had these plans first.

"Hey, you got the answer right," Gabriella tells me as she's looking over my paper.

"Really?"

"Yes," she laughs, "and you didn't even copy me."

I laugh, raising my hand as the teacher is asking for the answer now. "And now I'm going to give an answer for the first time this year."

It was right, just like she said.

But she's never wrong. Ever. At least about Calculus. Like I've said, Gabriella's a math whiz.

Mrs. Jacobs started scribbling notes on the board as soon as she removed the daily warm up from it and of course, Gabriella began jotting them all down. Sometimes I like to sit back and just watch her because of how focused she is. It's really cute, actually. And she hates when I interrupt her, try talking to her, pass her notes... which is actually really annoying on my part. But you know, I get bored sometimes.

"Those notes aren't going anywhere," I whisper to her.

"Shut up."

"You're scribbling like a mad woman."

She turns to me, looking annoyed as usual, "this is how I have an A in the class."

I feign resentment. "I have a B, thank you very much. And by the time college applications roll around, you know the night before they're due, I'll have that A and then you're stuck with me fort he next four years at Brown. Or probably not... you're probably the only one getting in."

"Stop," she laughs, "you'll get in. You not only have the grades, but your dad freaking went there."

"Oh yes, alumni power. I'll put a good word in for you."

"Stop talking."

This is how it is almost every class. It's me annoying her and her trying to learn.

I should probably stop.

* * *

When I open the door to my house, I'm freaked out that I hear laughing.

No one's supposed to be home.

I mean, I'm not even supposed to be home, but Chris called me when I was halfway there and told me he was at urgent care, throwing up.

So, of course I turned around. I was going to hang out with him and since he can't, what's the point?

But seriously. Who the fuck is in my house?

My parents left this afternoon to New York and my sister was supposed to leave right after me. My cousin was going to pick her up. Is it Gabriella? I know she said she'd come get Molly, but why are her and Morgan hanging out in my house when she has a home of her own?

But when I walk further into my house and see that there's people in the pool, I start to freak out a little bit.

Until I realize it's Em.

And she's laughing while straddling some guy in the pool.

Her best friends boyfriend.

My sister is in the pool, straddling Brady Smith and laughing without a care in the world.

What the fuck is going on here?!

The moment she sees me, she stops laughing and she immediately pushes herself off of him. Brady turns around and the look on his face was pure shock and embarrassment. They got caught. And I can't believe this is happening right now. No, it can't be happening right now. IT can't be happening AT ALL.

But it is. This is very real. This is happening. In my house. In my pool.

My sister and her best friends boyfriend.

"What the fuck, Emily?" I couldn't hold in my anger.

"Troy, stop..."

She immediately gets out of the pool, grabs a towel and comes over to me, "it's um, it's not what it looks like."

I couldn't help but laugh at that bullshit answer. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

"Dude, honestly..."

"Shut the fuck up," I tell Brady.

And then I turn around and go inside and Emily immediately follows me in, leaving Brady outside for a minute. I didn't want to look at him, let alone talk to him. So he needs to stay outside. Actually he needs to go home.

I can't believe what I walked in to. I never would have expected this. My sister... WITH HER BEST FRIEND'S BOYFRIEND.

Gabriella's boyfriend!

"What the fuck are you doing Emily? Are you serious? You're hooking up with Brady!?"

"I'm not hooking up with him... it just... happened."

"Oh, it just happened!?"

She nods, "yes, Troy. Please please please you cannot tell Gabriella about this. She doesn't have to know."

Is she kidding me right now?!

Of course she has to know. Her boyfriend is cheating on her. Her best friend is betraying her. Of course she has a right to know. She doesn't deserve this. Gabriella is one of the best girls I know and she is the last person that deserves to be treated like this because of they way she treats everyone. She treats everyone with respect and compassion and she... she doesn't fucking deserve this one bit and I hate that it's my sister doing this to her.

"Why aren't you in Santa Barbara right now?"

"Well, I can ask you the same thing," she says, "why aren't you in LA?"

I roll my eyes, "fuck you, Emily. You ditched Santa Barbara once you knew I was gonna be out for the night so you could hook up with Brady?"

She shakes her head, wrapping her towel around her tighter, "no, it just... it happened."

It didn't just happened.

This has been going on. I know it has.

It all fucking makes sense now. It makes so much sense.

"So, this all just happened? Why? Because you were working on a paper together, bouncing ideas off one another? It's not because you went to dinner with him last Sunday? Nothing happened that night Gabriella left Ben's party early? How fucking long has this been going on!?"

"Not long," she says, "um, a couple of weeks. I just... I couldn't help it."

"Yes, you could have! You could have realized he was with your best friend and not done anything! Regardless of what he does, you control you!"

And then she starts to cry.

I can't.

I can't deal with her bullshit tears. I can't.

"It's real," she tells me, "I really like him and he really likes me and we feel really bad about it."

"Emily, you can't be for real! He doesn't give a fuck about you."

"YES HE DOES!"

I roll my eyes, "oh, really?! Then why hasn't he broke up with Gabriella?"

She shrugs, "because he can't just dump her out of the blue. She doesn't deserve that after six months, you know?"

Okay, now I laugh. I let out a big laugh.

"Are you fucking kidding me?! She doesn't deserve getting cheated on period! Or being betrayed by you. What if he did break up with her, then what!? He'd get with you and you guys will keep it a secret or would you have told her? Enlighten me, Emily. Do you not give a shit about your best friend? You want to lose her? You want to break her trust and be the biggest asshole ever? What the fuck was going through your mind? WHAT IS GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" She yells, "I don't fucking know. I don't have anything figured out! Apart from the fact that I really, really like him."

"You're telling her."

Emily shakes her head, pleading to me, "no, no, I can't tell her, Troy. You can't tell her."

There's no fucking way I'm keeping this a secret.

But I am also not going to be the one who breaks this to her.

"You have to tell her. Tomorrow."

"Please..."

I feel very protective over Gabriella. Like I've said he's been apart of this family since we were in the fourth grade. My mom loves her so much. My dad thinks of her as another daughter. And here my sister is stabbing her in the back when she was supposed to be her best friend. I'm on her side. She knows that.

And I fucking love my sister to death, but a wrong is a wrong and I'm not gonna sit back and let her do this to her.

All of a sudden, the doorbell rings causing me to walk away from Emily for a minute.

I open it and my heart drops.

It's Gabriella.

"Hey," she smiles, "you're still here..."

"Yeah," I tell her, looking over my shoulder for a moment to see if Em was coming over but she wasn't, "um, what're you doing here?"

She looks at me weirdly, "um, I came to get Molly?"

Oh right, fuck. "Well, I'm not going to LA anymore so there's no need. Sorry. Bye..."

"Bye?" She laughs, "wait, let me come in. I know Brady's here."

"What?"

I mean, I want her so badly to know what Brady and Emily are doing behind her back because she deserves to know but I would never, ever want to break the news to her and see the look on her face. It will seriously kill me. Because she doesn't deserve any of this.

She pushes through the door, "his car's out front. Are him and Em working on their paper? I thought she was leaving right after school?"

His Porsche is out front.

How the fuck did I miss that fucking thing?

It's too late now. She's in the house and she's walking through.

"Gabriella, wait!" I try to stall, hoping Emily is getting herself ready for the worst, "wait..."

"What?"

But she doesn't stop. She just keeps walking.

Emily is now outside with Brady and they're both standing around in towels, talking to each other, looking upset.

And then they both turn to see Gabriella coming outside and their faces drop even more than when I caught them in the pool a few minutes ago. I don't want to see any of this. I don't want to witness it. Be around it. It feels so wrong.

"What's going on?"

"Gabs," Emily says, coming towards her, "what're you doing?"

"What're you doing?" She says and by the look on her face, I can tell she knows something is up.

Emily looks back at Brady who has a towel around his shoulders, looking like a cat has caught his tongue. It's bad. This whole scene is bad.

But then she looks at Gabriella and lies.

"We were working on our paper, it got really hot and we decided to take a little swim. I didn't go to Santa Barbara after all. What are you doing here? Do you wanna join us? I have one of your bathing suits upstairs in my room. You left it here."

"The water feels so great," Brady chimes in, finding his tongue.

Gabriella doesn't say anything for a moment. And then looks back at me. It's written all over my face... she knows something is up.

She's not dumb.

"You're lying to me huh?" She says calmly.

"What?" Emily looks worried.

"What is my boyfriend doing here, working on a paper that is supposed to be his own? And why when I got here, did Troy try to hold me back like he didn't want me to see what was going on? What the fuck is going on here?!"

Emily broke down. And Brady stood back, not saying anything once again. I just wanted to punch the guy and tell my sister she's a fucking idiot.

Gabriella obviously caught on to what was going on.

"I'm so sorry," she says, "I just... it happened. We never meant to hurt you, Gabs..."

"You were cheating on me... with my best friend?" She asks Brady.

"I'm sorry, Gabs..."

And then she turned towards Emily, "and you... you went behind me back and hooked up with my boyfriend?"

Emily has tears running down her face and I don't even feel sorry for her.

"I gotta get out of here."

"Gabriella!" Emily calls out to her, "I'm sorry!"

But she didn't turn back. She went in the house and kept walking.

And I didn't blame her one bit.


	5. 5) Gabriella

I had to get out of there.

Tears weren't rolling down my face, but anger was bursting out of my body and I had to leave.

My best friend and my fucking boyfriend.

What the fuck.

Never. Never did I think anything would ever happen between them. It wasn't even a thought in my mind. Emily... my best friend who I've known for years! And Brady who's been nothing but sweet. I didn't think he'd cheat on me. Maybe I was super naive, but I just didn't think it would happen. I didn't think that them meeting up in the library to work on their paper together was them going behind my back. I didn't think them setting in the quad working on their paper again meant they were hooking up. Even today, when I pulled up and saw his Porsche, I didn't think anything of it.

Before I get to my car, I hear my name being called.

It's Troy.

I don't ignore him because I knew he was on my side. And he wasn't there to gloat and say he knew Brady was an asshole this whole time.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"I know," I tell him, fully believing that.

He may have been the most annoying person to me at one point, but I know he'll always be there for one, always. And that involves being completely honest with me about stuff. He would have told me if he knew anything.

I know he would have.

"Do you wanna get out of here?" He asks me.

Out of here? Like where? Like he wants to grab dinner? No. I'm not in the mood for dinner. "Where?"

He shrugs, "Palm Springs."

"You want to go to Palm Springs?" I ask him, not sure if he's serious.

"I think you maybe need to clear your head," he tells me, "and being locked up in your room won't do you any favors. Come on, we should go."

I think about it for a minute. Maybe we should.

Right now, I feel anger.

But in a couple of hours, I might feel complete sadness. And I might start to just cry. And being in my room with some of his things around me, it's not good. And I maybe should get out of town because I don't want to talk to them right now. I don't want to see them. I don't want anything to do with them.

So, I don't give it a second though. I'm in. "Okay, um, I need to go home first."

"Yeah," he nods, "I'll meet you there."

Within five minutes, I was home and packing a bag for two nights. Or one night? I don't know. Two nights just in case.

My parents with to dinner with some friends so I left a note.

And then I was out of there.

* * *

I finally realized Troy and I haven't been talking for the last hour of this car ride.

He hasn't asked me any questions whatsoever.

Actually, he did. He asked if the AC was too much. But that was it. We didn't talk for the next hour or so.

Which was nice.

I was just trying to process everything. I was trying to go through everything in my mind. Why it happened, when did it happen, is it still going to happen? So many questions. And I just needed to look out the window for the last hour and think about it. And I still don't have answers. I have no idea how this all happened, why it happened or if it's still going on. I don't know. But I want to know. And then I don't. A part of me never wants to talk to Brady again and then another part of me wants to cut Emily from my life. But it's not that simple. Especially with Emily. She's my best friend.

Going through everything in my head, I should have seen the signs. I was so dumb. I was so naive to think Brady wouldn't cheat on me.

But I wasn't naive to think Emily would back stab me.

I never in a million years think this would happen. In any sense of the word.

Ever.

They were so excited that I left that party early, they were sneaking around together in the library, she was always trying to be around us. It makes sense now. It all makes complete sense and I hate myself for not paying more attention. Because I could have walked away.

Instead, it blew up in my face. And my best friend went behind my back. My boyfriend cheated on me.

Fuck this. Fuck all of this.

"I'm obviously more hurt by your sister because she's my best friend and I've known her for years. Fuck Brady. But fuck your sister, too."

"Yeah, of course," Troy tells me, surprised I'm talking.

I take a deep breath and close my eyes for a second wondering if this is all happening.

If it's actually happening.

And it is.

"Do you remember in the 8th grade when Jason Seller transferred to our school and Emily had the biggest crush on him? But he asked me to go to the movies with him? I so badly wanted to go with him. I thought he was so fucking cool and the cool, hot new guy asking me to the movies was so huge and so flattering and I was so giddy over it. But then I remembered about Emily's crush and I said no to him and I didn't even regret it. I wasn't mad at your sister whatsoever, I didn't resent her. It just felt like the right thing to do because she was my best friend and no boy was going to get in the way of that. Or when Sasha Pierce asked if I wanted to go to her party, but only me and not Emily because she only had one spot left on her party bus? Again, I turned it down. Not because they didn't have room for Em, but because she purposely didn't have room for Em. She wanted to rub that in her face and she wanted there to be a fight between us. And there I was thinking, no girl is going to get in between our friendship. I mean... what a fucking idiot I am."

"You're not an idiot," he tells me, "you're a great friend."

"But look at where that's gotten me... my best friend is fucking my boyfriend or who knows what the hell they're doing," I sigh, leaning back.

I'm not sure if Troy's uncomfortable because this is his sister, but I have to vent.

And I trust him.

"I'm sorry, if I had any idea..."

"Yeah, I know," I cut him off, he doesn't need to explain himself.

"You can vent all you want, though," he tells me.

I smile at him.

And then sit here for a minute and just think to myself about how awful this day has become.

"The thing is, I'm not even sad about Brady. I didn't think about breaking up with him, but I didn't think about our future. It's not like I'm losing this great love and how could they do this to me, you know? It's mostly just about respect. They don't respect me. And I expected way more from your sister."

"For sure," he nods, "I don't even know what was going on through her mind, to be honest. I think she's always been jealous of you, though."

"She's never been jealous of me."

Troy chuckles a bit, "wake up, yes, she has."

I've never... I've never felt that. "But why? I mean, there's no reason to be."

He shrugs.

But then he gives me a handful of reasons. "School comes easy to you, you work really hard, I know that, but you're also just smart. It's not as easy for her and I think she's always been envy of that. Everyone likes you. Emily? She has 'haters.' She's never been in a serious relationship, you were in one first. Jason Seller wanted you and not her. I mean, if you really think about it, I think you can figure out why. You're beautiful, but you have that kind of beauty that's just natural, that a lot of people gravitate to. In my honest opinion, I think she's jealous of you. And it doesn't make what she did fine or excuse it, but I really don't think it was so much about Brady as it was about having something you had, like she finally won."

I don't even know what the last part was because all I can concentrate on was the fact that Troy Bolton called me beautiful. A natural beauty.

My heart skipped a beat. I felt it.

And now, I'm sitting here just thinking about that.

It feels like the ultimate compliment because Troy Bolton is so beautiful.

But I bring myself back down to earth and realize that this guy is sort of like a brother. Not really. But he's been in my life long enough to be considered one and my heart cannot be skipping beats for him. No way. That's insane. Just because he called me beautiful. I've been called beautiful before.

It felt honest, though.

And that made me smile. It made me really smile, actually.

"Gabriella?"

"Oh sorry," I realize I haven't said anything, "um, well, thanks, I think, but I don't know... you think so?"

"Think what?" He asks me.

Think I'm beautiful, I want to say. But I don't.

I take a deep breath and start thinking about this whole shitty situation again. "You think she hooked up with Brady just because he was mine? And not for the fact that she likes him? I don't know, that seems really, really low."

"I don't know, I don't want to assume, but that's just my opinion. She's always been jealous of you and this was her ah ha moment."

"But there's no need to be jealous! Emily is gorgeous. And smart. And people like her just fine."

"Yeah, but she's not you."

She's not me? What does that mean?

Suddenly, I have butterflies. I don't know what he means.

But I need to find out.

"I don't know what that means," I tell him annoyed that I didn't just come out and ask him what it meant because what if he just rides it off?

"It just means she's not you," he takes his eyes off the road for a minute and gives me a small smile.

You know what, that was good enough for me.

And for the rest of the way there, we did nothing but listen to music.

And sing along.

It was just what I needed.


	6. 6) Troy

I didn't mean to throw my sister under the bus and bad mouth her, but I couldn't help it.

It's true.

Anyone with eyes knows Emily is jealous of Gabriella.

Which really sucks.

Because Gabriella is the kind of girl that wants everyone to succeed in everything they do. She's not competitive whatsoever. She cheers everyone that she loves on. I mean, I remember one day, I was really getting under her skin, and she told me to fuck off but then five minutes later, she was helping me with my chemistry homework because I had a test the next day. She's just a good person. And it comes naturally to her. She doesn't throw anything in your face. And Emily is one of those people that has to try hard at things. It's nothing bad, but when your best friend is basically perfect, it can get to you.

It definitely got to Emily especially after she realized she didn't have the grades to apply to any Ivy League school like Gabriella.

So, I don't know if she really likes Brady.

Or if she went with it because he was giving her attention.

And getting attention from him meant she was on the same playing field as Gabriella, you know?

But whatever.

I'm not going to talk about it anymore unless she brings it up. Because this little trip isn't so she could let all her feelings out, unless she wants to, it's so she could get away from everything and have a little fun. And not think about it.

"Do you want me to order some pizza?" I ask Gabriella as we're getting settled in, "or we could go out and get something?"

"Pizza sounds good," she pulls off her sweatshirt.

"Hawaiian with jalapenos?"

She smiles at me, throwing her sweatshirt on top of her luggage, "yes, please."

I ordered the pizza right away and then sat down on the couch.

Coming here is my favorite thing.

It's just a nice little getaway from home and it feels homey enough to relax and do absolutely nothing. Most of the time, I come with my family so we just hang out, bring friends, BBQ, swim and stuff. But when I bring friends, we party it up. Today, though, I know we're going to keep it low key.

Which is completely okay with me. Because Gabriella is a low key person.

I am, too.

Unlike my sister who loves being out and about.

It's nice to just stay in.

"What do you wanna do? Binge watch a show or play board games?"

"Either one," Gabriella tells me.

"Come on, pick," I take my shoes off and make myself comfortable, "you know my mom... we have every game imaginable."

She laughs, getting comfortable on the couch.

And then decides she wants to play monopoly. "I haven't played that game in so long."

"Monopoloy it is."

I get up and go over to where my mom stashes all the board games.

And as I'm getting it, I look up and see a picture of our family and Gabriella's family together. We came here two summers ago. I brought along a few or my friends and we annoyed the shit out of Emily and Gabriella. To be fair, Grant had the biggest crush on Emily and that was his way of holding it back. That same trip, I pushed Gabriella in the pool with her clothes on not knowing her ipod was in her hand.

She was pissed. Really pissed.

She yelled that I was so immature and to grow up.

And then the rest of the trip, we didn't really talk. I felt bad but at the same time, I thought it was funny. Looking back, it's not.

I was immature.

But I think I've really matured. Who knows.

While I'm looking at this picture, I also think about how our parents are going to feel.

Gabriella's mom is the nicest woman I've ever met. I pushed her daughter in the pool and she still made me a sandwich twenty minutes later. I don't have reason to go to Gabriella's house too often, but when I am there, she's so nice. And her dad is so cool. And they've accepted Emily as another daughter.

This will crush her mom. I know it will. And I hate that.

Mostly, it will crush MY mom because it's her daughter who is betraying her best friend and going behind her back.

I don't even want to think about it.

My mom didn't raise her like this. She raised us to respect people.

"Troy?"

"Hmm?" I turn around and see Gabriella giving me a weird look from the couch, "what're you doing?"

"Oh nothing," I stand up, "just thinking."

About what?"

Fuck. Why did I say that? Now I have to give her an answer. "About that time I pushed you in the pool with your ipod in your hand. At the time, I thought it was funny and a good idea, but looking back, I was an asshole. What part of that is actually funny? No wonder you hated me."

"I didn't hate you," she laughs, "no, I just... you were annoying. But you grew out of it."

"Thanks, I think I did."

She grabs Monopoly for me and then moves from the couch to the ground, "I was so mad at you. I had just downloaded so many Taylor Swift's songs."

It was during her and Emily's Taylor Swift phase.

"I'm sorry," I laugh, "I used to annoy the shit out of you guys."

"It's okay," she shrugs, "I'm sure I annoyed you, too. I was... particular."

"Nah, you were fine."

She gave me a smile as she organized all the money and all the cards. She took out all the pieces and laid them out.

This was not how I thought my Friday night would turn out.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

* * *

"Oh my gosh, these are sooooo good," Gabriella gushed over her eggs benedict.

"Damn, I should have gotten them."

"That looks good, too," she says about my omelet.

It was.

But her food looked better.

We're currently having breakfast in downtown palm springs before we go on a hike. It's these trails that we love. We've walked them a bunch of times and every time we come to palm springs, we have to do them. Gabriella loves hiking, walking, running, staying in shape so I thought it'd be nice to do since I'm into all that as well. And then I thought we'd check out the art museum here, too, since usually, we don't do anything when we come here.

We just hang around the house and do some shopping on canyon drive. So, it'll be nice to do some things.

You know, to get her mind off things.

I asked if she wanted to go home tonight, but she wants to stay another night.

So, that's fine by me.

We had a great time yesterday. We ate pizza, played a long game of monopoly and then crashed on the couch. We didn't even make it to the bedrooms because we started watching an episode of Seinfeld that made us doze off. But surprisingly, it was comfortable and we slept fine.

"Have you talked to your mom?" I ask her, taking a bite.

"Yeah, I called her this morning. She doesn't know anything yet. Thought it was just a last moment trip."

"If you wanna go home later, we can."

She shrugs, "I don't really. But we can play it by ear. Maybe I will later."

I haven't talked to Emily.

She texted me about an hour after we left yesterday just to ask where I went. I told her to a friends and that's about it and I haven't talked to her since.

I'm not sure if she's reached out to Gabriella because I don't want to ask or bring it up, but I hope she has. Gabriella's a really forgiving person and she doesn't hold a grudge and Brady wasn't even the love of her life, so I think if Emily shows remorse, if she apologizes, they should be fine.

But the thing is, I'm not sure if she's remorseful.

She was crying yesterday, but it just seemed so insincere to me.

I'm not going to tell Gabriella that, though, and rub salt in the wound. She can decide for herself.

"Your phone..."

"What?" I snap out of my thoughts.

My phone's buzzing.

I look down at it and see it's Emily. Fuck. Speak of the devil. She's calling me.

I'm not going to answer it. Gabriella's in front of me. I'll call her back later. Besides, I'm still upset with her myself and it wasn't even my boyfriend.

"Troy, you can answer it," she tells me, "it's fine."

"Nah, it's fine."

"Look, I know since you were the one that discovered this whole thing, you kind of feel responsible for me and I'm not saying you're being nice to me because of it or anything like that, but I'm not going to make you choose between me and your sister. She's your sister."

I shakes my head, "no way. I'm not choosing a person. I'm choosing right from wrong. And she was wrong. And I wanna make sure you're okay."

Gabriella gives me a smile, like she appreciates me. "Thanks."

"I'll call her back," I shrug.

"Yeah, you should," she takes a bite of her food.

I'm just not in the mood right now.

I'm in the middle of breakfast and don't wanna talk. She can wait.

"You know," Gabriella starts telling me, "my mom would always say, Gabriella, Troy's a sweet guy, he just needs to grow up, you'll see. And I was like, yeah, right mom, he lives to annoy Emily and I. And she was just like, trust me, he's a nice guy."

"When did she say that?" I laugh, amused by it. Teresa Montez is the nicest lady on this planet, I'm convinced of it.

"Right after you and Chase put that fake sticker on my brand new car to make me think my window was cracked," she tells me.

Again, I laughed.

God, I was so immature. I wouldn't even dream of doing that anymore.

"Your mom's just so nice."

"I mean, she's right," she shrugs, "you are a nice guy. I think you would just hide it sometimes."

"Why?"

She takes another bite of her food and then washes it down with her orange juice. "I don't know. I think you thought nice meant boring so you would cover it up by playing all these stupid pranks, throwing people in the pool... and then one day, you just stopped. You grew up and realized that it doesn't mean you're boring, it just means you're a nice guy and that's it."

Gabriella Montez gets me. And that's weird to say and admit because she's not my best friend. She's not Chase, who is my best friend.

But she really does.

I feel like she sees the core of who I am and accepts me for it.

And I also feel like I can tell her anything and everything and she'll take it to the grave.

That's the kind of person she is.

She's the best kind of person. Which is why it's not fair that Emily and Brady did this to her. Brady is such a fucking idiot for ruining that relationship. He's not going to get better than Gabriella Montez no matter how hard he tries, no offense to my sister. She's as good as it gets. I mean, if I had a girl like Gabriella Montez, I'd do everything I could to keep her, not let her go.

And right now, she's sitting in front of me and it's all I'm thinking about.

How could someone let someone like her go?

I know I'd never.


	7. 7) Gabriella

I keep checking my phone.

But I'm getting nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

Well, I am getting stuff, but it's not from people who I think should be sending me stuff.

Emily.

And Brady.

They haven't tried talking to me since yesterday afternoon.

And I don't want to talk to them. I shouldn't talk to them right now. But the fact that they're not reaching out is mind blowing to me. Are they giving me space? Am I not getting their texts? Are they trying to think of what they could say and they're trying to form the perfect sentence? I don't get it. Why are they not reaching out to me? I'm the one that's supposed to ignore them while they're supposed to beg for my forgiveness.

Mostly Emily. Brady, I couldn't give two shits about and I don't expect or need him to reach out to me.

"Is it your mom?"

"What?" I look up and see Troy handing me the water I asked for, "oh no."

"You okay?" He asks me.

I nod, twisting the cap off and taking a sip.

And then I put it on the coffee table in front of me.

"It's just Morgan," I semi lie. My last text is to Morgan, but she hasn't texted me back in about ten minutes. I was maybe checking Emily's twitter but there's been no activity since yesterday morning. "She's just asking how I'm doing and stuff."

"You told her?"

"Well, yeah, she's my best friend."

Troy nods, taking a seat on the couch diagonal from the one I am. "Right. Another aspect of your life Emily was jealous of."

Emily was jealous of Morgan? Actually, I could kind of see that.

"Really?"

"Yeah," Troy laughs, "man, I shouldn't be talking shit on my sister, throwing her under the bus, but yeah. Did you not get that vibe? My sister has friends, but they're just friends you hang out with here and there, not lifelong friends. And the fact that you have another person that you could tell everything to, well, that made her jealous. She'd always just make snide comments about how Morgan seems a little boring."

"I guess I could see that. That sucks."

Troy gave me a weird look. "That sucks? What sucks?"

I shrug, "the fact that Emily's jealous. I get it in a way, but it's like, she has no reason to be. She has a great life. She has everything she could want."

"Yeah, well..."

"I don't wanna talk about her."

Troy nods, like he fully understands, "yeah, sorry I brought it up."

It's hard to think about her, let alone talk about her.

Emily's been in my life since I was in the 4th grade. Back then, you didn't need many things in common to be friends so we became friends. And once our parents become friends too, that only made our friendship stronger so we became the best of friends. And I'm not just saying this because of everything that has happened, but if we met during high school, I don't think we'd be that close. We're different. But at the core, I thought we were the same.

When I met Morgan, I could sense that Emily was a bit jealous, but I just thought because she maybe thought she could replace her.

Not because I had someone else to share my life with or anything like that.

It makes sense.

But I don't want to think about it.

"What were you going to do in LA anyway?" I tell Troy, realizing we hadn't talked about that.

"Just chill with Chris. I haven't seen him in a while."

"What happened?"

"He got sick, went to Urgent Care or something like that. Turns out he had strep throat. So, I'm saving my visit for another day."

I lean back on the couch and watch as Troy's on his phone.

If it weren't for him, I'd be holed up in my room right now with Morgan on the bed next to me wanting to talk about everything that happened. Obviously that's what friends are for, but right now, I didn't want any of that. I wasn't ready to come to terms with it.

So being here with Troy was great.

And I really, really appreciate him being there for me. He's been nothing but nice. But like my mom has said, he's always been nice.

"So no girl this weekend?"

"What?" Troy looks up from his phone at over at me.

I shrug, not knowing if I offended him. But we've always joked around. "No girl?"

He chuckled a bit and shook his head, "it's not every weekend and it's not like I'm going around town hooking up with every single girl out there."

"Oh, you're not?"

"No," he says, "that's too many girls."

"Don't you get tired of all of that?" I ask him, actually curious to know why he doesn't ever just date one girl and settle down with her. Surely, there's a beeline of girls trying to get a date with Troy Bolton. "Don't you want someone? Or is it like a fear of commitment?"

He stayed quiet for a moment. Maybe he doesn't want to talk about this.

I gotta respect that.

But then he shrugged, "I just haven't found the right girl, I guess. It's not about this fear."

"But how would you know if you don't take them out?"

"You just know. And I have."

"Oh, you don't just go to their house or they come to your house or whatever?"

He shakes his head, "I mean, sure, sometimes. Man, you make it seem like the minute they walk into my house, we start going at it. It's not like that. We hang out, if it happens it happens. It's not purely for that. I've taken girls to dinner. Nothing just ever clicks."

I get that. But they also have to want it.

And I'm not sure he does.

"Do you even want it? A girlfriend? Someone you're there for, someone to hang out with and talk to and love and all that good stuff?"

"I haven't really thought about it," he says, "I mean, maybe."

"Natasha Simon asked me the other day about you. If you'd ever go out with a girl like her."

Troy laughs. "What does she mean by that?"

I shrug, "I don't know. I guess cause she's kind of a tomboy, plays softball and soccer. I think maybe even tennis."

"Does she really?"

"I think," I laugh, "I told her I had no idea, which I don't. I don't know your type. I don't know what you like and I think that's kind of weird since I've known you for so long. Like what do you look for in a girl? It doesn't have to be physical."

"I haven't really thought about it, to be honest."

I roll my eyes. He's not gonna get out of this that easy. "Come on, if you think about it, I'm sure you can come up with so many things."

So, he does.

He thinks about it for a moment.

And then he actually lets me in on the kind of girl he wants.

"I think she has to be really self aware," Troy starts telling me which is interesting. "You know, just be aware of what you're doing, what you're saying, how it could affect people. I'd be nice if she was close to her parents, but it's not this big necessity unless she just despises them. I don't know, ambitious, has goals. She needs to be confident and not in the way where she's loud and out there and stands her ground, but just in herself and know that she's worth it and she can do anything she wants to do. Obviously, if she's nice and funny and can take a joke. Generous. A simple girl, really."

"A simple girl," I find myself saying in a soft whisper, suddenly intrigued in everything he has to say about his perfect girl. "Um, is that it?"

"Sure," he shrugs, "do you know anybody?"

Do I know anybody?

Myself, I think, but quickly stop.

I cannot believe that was just a thought in my mind. What in the world?

There is absolutely no way I'm attracted to Troy Bolton.

Okay, everyone that knows Troy Bolton is attracted to him, but I'm using it in the way that would make you like them. There's just no way I'm having these thoughts, these feelings... that's crazy. It's being clouded by him being so nice to me and bringing me here.

Because honestly, why would Troy Bolton like a girl like me when he has someone like Kacie or Jenna?

Sure, they're annoying but they're gorgeous.

For the first time in years, I'm seeing him differently.

And that's scaring the shit out of me.

What is going on?

* * *

For the rest of the night, I tired to push it out of my mind and not see Troy in that way.

But it's hard when he looks like that.

And acts like he's acting... which is really, really nice.

He made us dinner.

He grilled some steaks and some corn on the cob and some baked potatoes and it was all so fucking good.

Now, we're just laying around in the living room trying to decide on a movie to watch. I'm leaning towards a drama, but he suggested a comedy, so I don't know. Nothing too heavy, just the right amount. But we're having a hard time coming up with a compromise so it's been ten minutes of sitting here.

"Hello?" Troy suddenly says into his phone.

He gets up and walks over to the dining room area that's connected, but I can still hear him.

He's talking to his mom.

"I didn't ask her to come," I hear him say and then move a bit so I can hear more clearly even though I probably shouldn't. "She's fine. Yeah, I talked to her earlier today. I'm not sure why she didn't go with Kristina. Mom, it's fine."

That was pretty much the gist of it.

I think his mom was just wondering why Emily was at home and Troy was in Palm Springs. Eventually, it'll come out.

But for now, it didn't need to be this big thing.

Troy comes back a minute later and gives me a small smile. "Sorry, that was my mom."

"Everything okay?"

"Mhm," he puts his phone down on the couch, "just checking up. She's been busy enjoying herself in New York she hasn't really checked in on us and I guess she figured out Emily didn't come to Palm Springs with me. Obviously, I didn't tell her why. She can do that herself on Monday night."

For the first time all weekend, I think about people knowing my business.

We've been in our own little bubble here.

But come Monday, Brady and I are going to be broken up.

And who knows about Emily.

I have no idea if they're feeling remorseful, if they're regretting it, if it was this one time thing for them... or if they're shacking up. If they're hanging out and having the best time and they genuinely like each other. People are going to know that.

It sucks. It sucks people will know my business and people will know my best friend betrayed me and my boyfriend cheated on me.

"Do you think she really likes him?"

"Um, I have no idea," Troy shrugs, looking uncomfortable.

"What if she does?"

He shrugs again, I think not knowing why I'm asking, if I even want to talk about it.

All these thoughts are running through my head now.

What if this isn't about me at all like Troy said, like she just wanted what I have? What if it's not some little fling? What if it's not just attraction? What if they genuinely like and care for each other and they could be the great love of their lives? Then what? Can I actually be mad at them for that?

"Why are you thinking about that?"

"Because what if they're meant to be together and I'm over here mad when I shouldn't be mad at that. You can't help who you like."

"Are you fucking kidding me right now?" Troy laughs, sitting next to me.

No? I'm not?

I'm not sure why he's laying.

"No, I just... why are you laughing at that?"

"I'm not laughing at you, just... it's crazy to think that you're actually trying to justify it or find a reason for it to be okay. And that could be true, they could really like each other, but it doesn't change the fact of what they did. And that just... you're a fucking good person, Gabriella."

That made me blush. Now that I think about it, whenever Troy compliments me, it makes me blush.

It always has.

One time in 8th grade at a pool party when Sean Connery said I was pretty, Troy agreed and it made me blush like crazy.

I don't know if he was serious or not, but it still made me blush.

And again when he told Parker Scott in 10th grade that I was too good for him.

I mean, I got mad, but I still blushed.

Troy Bolton is hands down the most attractive guy I know. And lately, he's been the nicest person. He's always been nice, but it was laced with annoying tendencies. And lately, I've also been seeing him in a new light. A light that I didn't know existed to me. I mean, the more time I spend with him, the more he's growing on me. The more I think about how attractive he is and how funny and easy going. It's crazy. And I hate it. I hate how all night I've been thinking about it. I hate how he brought me here and made me feel one hundred times better than I would have felt at home. I hate it.

He doesn't do girlfriends. He never has and I don't know when he will. And it's strange even thinking about that.

Why would I care?

Well, maybe because I think I have a crush on him.

I have a crush on Troy Bolton.

"I'm just trying to you know, find the silver lining in all of this."

"I think the silver lining is that you're not with Brady anymore," he tells me, "because you and I both know you deserved way more. You deserve more."

"Why do you keep saying that? Who?" I roll my eyes, "and why? Everyone wants Brady."

Troy shakes his head. "Everyone wants Brady because it's the thing to do. And you deserve more than him. I've seen the way he is around you and though it's not bad, you deserve to be treated better because you are better. You're one of the best girls I know. I mean, you don't even know how great you are, which makes you even better. You're beautiful and smart and kind and generous and all these great things that someone like Brady would take advantage of. You deserve to be with someone who wouldn't dream of doing what he did and appreciate you..."

I don't even let him finish what he's saying.

Because I lean over and kiss him.

Hard.

Without even thinking about how bad of an idea how it could be, I kissed him.

Hearing those words come out of his mouth, a light bulb went off in my head. I was crushing on Troy Bolton. And I needed to kiss him right then and there.

So, I did. I kissed him.

And now my lips are on his and his are on mine and he's barely moving them and I''m kind of regretting it.

But then, I feel his lips move against mine and all is alright in the world.

With one swift movement, I deepened the kiss and pushed him back so I was on top of him on this couch. His hands were gently cupping my face before his right hand made his way up my neck and into my hair. My hands were in his hair and then on his face ad then in his hair again.

And we were making out. Full on making out.

Until he pulled back.

"Gabriella," he whispered, "I..."

"No," I shut him up with a kiss, "no, don't say anything. I want this."

He didn't say anything else. He kissed me back.

Kissing Troy Bolton was unlike anything I've ever experienced. It was almost magical. It felt right. And it felt like it was supposed to happen a long time ago.

In this moment, I didn't care that he hooked up with girls left and right and had commitment issues.

Because kissing him felt so good.

Kissing Troy Bolton is something I never knew how badly I wanted.

And I don't want to stop.


	8. 8) Troy

I woke up this morning with Gabriella's head on my chest.

For a moment, I was confused.

And then I remember last night was one of the best nights of my life and it actually wasn't a dream. It happened.

Gabriella and I kissed.

We kissed, we made out, we kissed some more. We laughed. We laid around. We kissed even more. And then we fell asleep. And this is what happening's now and I strangely feel... content. Like, this is totally normal and I didn't just spend last night making out with my sister's best friend.

And a girl who I've known since we were like ten.

But the thing is, I think I've liked Gabriella for a long time now.

No, I know I have.

I never felt like I could, though. She was my sister's best friend. My mom loved her as another daughter. Boys asked her out left and right.

It just didn't seem like a good idea.

And for the past six months, day after day, I had to see her walking down the hallway with Brady or at some party he dragged her to. Or at her house. Or her bringing him to my house. And I fucking hated it. I would use the excuse that he's a douche, which he still very much is, but I knew deep down I was jealous of him and how easily he could like her and show it and be out in the open with his feelings.

Because I couldn't do that. I had to keep it bottled in.

I wasn't supposed to like Gabriella. I wasn't supposed to think about her.

But I couldn't help it.

When I was in the 9th grade, Tim Anderson asked her to formal. She came and got ready at our house and I still, to this day, remember vividly her coming down the stairs in her blue dress looking like the most beautiful girl I had ever laid my eyes on. It was in the moment, I knew there were feelings.

My mom quickly shut them down. I don't know if she actually knew of my feelings or was just making sure I didn't catch them.

She would say how bad it'd be if I ever liked her.

And would tell me stories, maybe made up, about how boys tore friendships apart.

I couldn't do that to Emily.

In my head, I would never hurt Gabriella. I wouldn't dream about it. But I knew it could obviously not work out between us because of our age, the fact that we were still growing and learning about ourselves... it just didn't seem right. So, I didn't do anything about it.

For three whole years, I fought my feelings for her.

Until last night.

Last night, I gave in . She kissed me first, but I definitely kissed back.

In that moment, I didn't care about if in two months, we hate each other and things just went downhill. I didn't care that things might be completely awkward. All I cared about was how it felt. And it felt really fucking good that I wish this happened sooner.

"Morning," I tell Gabriella as soon as she opens her eyes and lifts her head up.

"Hi," she tells me, "um, what time is it?"

"Ten," I tell her.

She looks like she doesn't know what's going on. But after a moment or so, it looks like it's all coming back to her. "Good morning."

I give her a smile. And I want to give her a kiss, but I don't think we're really there yet.

"How'd you sleep?" I ask.

"Um, pretty good, I think," she chuckles, "I don't remember getting up and feeling uncomfortable or anything like that."

Me neither.

God, she's so beautiful, I can't get over it. There's been countless times where I sat back, stood back, and watched as she talked to my sister, to my mom, to people around her and just thought about how goddamn beautiful she is. How I wish more than anything I could just tell her that and have it mean something to her. Have her know how I truly mean it.

And now, I can. I feel like I can. Because of last night. But I don't want to push it. I don't want to rush things. I need to figure out why last night happened.

I mean, we weren't drunk.

But I called her beautiful when I was defending her against Brady and then she kissed me.

I need to know she wanted to do it and it wasn't just impulse.

I need to know she doesn't regret it.

"Um, when do you want to head home?" She asks me, pulling her hair back in a ponytail and getting off the couch.

"Whenever you want."

There's no easy way to approach this. There's no right time. I can't wait until we're having breakfast to say, hey, so about last night... or when we're in the car driving home. Or when we're at school tomorrow. I mean, it's now or never. And if it is now, I have to be prepared for the worst she could say.

So, I just go for it. I ask what last night was about.

"What do you mean?" She asks, looking a bit confused by my question.

"I just mean... you kissed me. And then we were kind of on this cloud, I think, that we didn't acknowledge it and we went the whole night with our head in the cloud and now, I just... I have to know what it meant. I know you were probably down..."

"No, don't do that," she shakes her head.

"Do what?"

She pushes some fly away hairs from her face and continues shaking her head, "make it seem like I didn't know what I was doing."

I'm a little confused. "No, that's not it, I just wanted to..."

"If you woke up today, freaked out, I get it. If you want to blame it on the fact that you thought my head space wasn't right and I was just down about what happened and about Brady, if you didn't care for it, I get that too, but..."

"Wait," I stop her, realizing that she thinks I'M trying to back away from this whole thing, "no, I loved it, I just didn't know if you actually meant it."

She finally understood what was happening here.

And I think she was taken aback.

I loved everything about last night and I want her to know that.

"You loved it?"

"Look, I know this is probably super weird, we've known each other since the fourth grade and you're my sister's best friend, or were, I don't know, that's not important right now," I tell her, "but whatever happened last night, whatever it meant, I liked it. It felt... right."

"You really think so?" She asks me, taking a seat on the couch, "I'm totally freaked out by it, honestly, but I don't... regret it."

I give her a small smile. "Me neither."

And she gives me one, too. "So, what now? I don't know what to really do."

"I don't either," I shrug, "I guess we take it one day at a time. It doesn't have to be this one conversation, we can just... figure it out together."

"Okay," she tells me.

I feel like I want to kiss her, but I don't want to move fast.

This is new to me. I've never... I've never liked a girl like this. The closest I gotten was Paige Brewer over the summer. We hooked up after a party and when she asked if I wanted to hang out the next day, I said yes and it was fun. It never felt like that with anyone else, I had never wanted to hang out with a girl twice, which sounds totally bad. But I just don't like wasting my time. And with Paige, it felt nice. And so we hung out almost the whole summer, but it was never serious. It was just hanging out. I wasn't hooking up with other girls, just her. But it fizzled out and we went our separate ways.

With Gabriella, it's a whole new ball game.

Until last night when she kissed me, I never knew how much I actually liked her.

I knew there were feelings there and I'd think about her and think about what being like her would be like. I found her insanely attractive and I thought she was great and all, but I wasn't one hundred percent positive about these so called feelings towards her.

Last night solidified them.

And brought out these intense feelings for her I didn't know actually existed. I mean, I like this girl. I do. I know that now.

For the first time, I'm excited about where this could go.

Really excited.


	9. 9) Gabriella

"How was Palm Springs?"

"It was good," I tell my mom, opening the fridge and grabbing a water.

"Who all went? You never told me."

I uncap my water and chug, like, half the bottle before answering her. "Oh, it was just Troy and I."

She looked confused. "Really? Where was Emily?"

"Oh, she stayed back. With Brady. Because they were hooking up so I didn't want to bother them. Decided to just go to Palm Springs for the weekend."

"WHAT?"

My mom's face was priceless. I'm not sure why I took this approach in telling her. This calm, out of the blue, casually mentioning that my boyfriend and best friend were going behind my back approach. But it's done and I know she has all these questions, but I just don't really have answers.

Because I haven't talked to either of them since Friday afternoon and even then, we didn't do much talking.

"They were hooking up being my back," I tell her, "Brady and Emily."

"No, Gabriella, you're lying..."

I laugh at how sad she looks. It's not funny. It's just such a fucked up situation that involves a lot of people, unfortunately. Emily was apart of my family just like I was apart of hers. So many people are getting hurt in the process and it fucking sucks.

I wish I was lying about this, though. How I wish.

"I'm not, mom," I take another sip of my water, "they were hooking up behind my back and I caught them on Friday."

"Why?"

"Why were they hooking up? I don't know, you have to ask them."

"Are you doing okay?"

I shrug, "I'm fine. I don't care about Brady, as bad as that sounds... when it happened, the only person I thought about and was angry at was Emily. And, though, I never thought about breaking up with him, I never thought about our future, you know? I never realized that I wasn't that invested in the relationship and I was just sticking around to stick around. Emily on the other hand... regardless if Brady was the great love of my life or not, she disrespected me and went behind my back and it was just a total slap in the face and the worst thing is, she hasn't reached out to me since I left her house."

My mom looks crushed. I hate it. "It can't be the end of your friendship. It's been 8 years..."

"I didn't choose this mom, I don't know..."

"So, what? How did you end up going to Palm Springs with just Troy?"

"Well, he was there when it happened and he asked if I wanted to go to get away from it all and it was the best decision of my life..."

Before my mom could say anything else, the doorbell rang.

It was Morgan.

"Sorry, I have to go."

"We're not done talking," she tells me.

I know we're not. She's going to want every detail. How I found out, what Emily's face looked like, what they said, Brady's reaction. How Troy found out. Everything. But I share everything with my mom that I don't care. I love talking to her about things.

But right now, Morgan is picking me up to grab some dinner.

And fifteen minutes later, we were seated across from each other at our favorite sushi place looking over the menu at all the delicious rolls.

"So, are you doing okay?"

"I'm fine," I nod, "I mean, perfectly fine not dating Brady anymore, yeah."

"And Em?"

I shrug, "Emily hasn't tried talking to me."

Morgan looks shocked. "What do you mean she hasn't tried talking to you? If I were her, I'd be on the phone every five minutes because obviously you wouldn't pick up your phone so I'd have to call back. I'd send flowers. A couple hundred texts messages, probably."

I laugh, knowing that's true. But I also know it would never, ever happen and I can confidently say that and believe in that.

"You would never do it in the first place," I tell her.

"I hate this."

"Me too," I close my menu.

She closes hers, too, "that was nice of Troy to pull you away from it all for a weekend."

I couldn't help, but smile when she mentioned Troy's name.

And of course she noticed. "What?"

"Okay, don't make a big deal about it, but I hooked up with Troy last night after he was saying all these nice things to me and I think he thought it was impulse and everything because he was being nice, but it wasn't. I mean, it was impulse, but I meant it. I like Troy Bolton, I think. And we made out a lot and I don't know if that's completely inappropriate because I just got out of a relationship, but I really liked it."

"You hooked up with Troy Bolton?" Morgan's jaw was basically to the ground. "Shut the fuck up. Are you kidding me? You've known him forever!"

"Which is the weird ting. I never knew how insanely attracted I am to him."

She still couldn't believe it.

And I didn't blame her. It's kind of crazy.

"So, you're sure you didn't just get caught up in everything? Like being mad at Emily so making out with her brother?"

"No," I shake my head, "it's the weirdest thing... I like him."

"What now?"

I shrug, "I'm not sure. We talked about it a little bi, but didn't really get into specifics."

Morgan shook her head and laughed, "I can't believe you broke up with Brady and the next night, you hooked up with Troy Bolton. He's so fucking hot, Gabriella. But like also someone who you consider family, so like how in the world is that going to work?"

I have absolutely no idea. And that's why this is such a trick situation.

But I don't think I wanted to walk away from it now. That kiss was too good. It was real and it felt like it was supposed to happen.

I'm just going to take it slow with him.

All I know is that I do like him.

So, we'll see.

* * *

It's clear Emily and Brady have been ignoring me.

The only class I share with Emily, we sit on the opposite ends of the room, so that's good.

I mean, I don't necessarily want to talk to her right now anyway.

But we need to.

Eventually, it'll happen because I need to know why. Why she went behind my back and did this. But it doesn't have to be today.

Today, I'm just trying to get through the day.

"You busy tonight?" My friend Sophia comes up behind me, scaring me half to death since my head was in my locker, "I know it's a Monday and all, but was thinking me you and Morgan could go to the bonfire Canyon is hosting. How fun does a bonfire sound?"

"Not very," I tell her, "I took a shower this morning, I don't wanna take one again today after I smell like bonfire. Besides, it's not our school."

"I know," Sophia laughs, "but Kyle goes there and things are moving along."

Kyle... her boo.

Well, this guy she's gone on a few dates with.

"Maybe," I tell her, "talk to Morgan and let me know what she says. I'm not saying no."

"Yay!" She disappears after.

All of a sudden, I see Brady entering the hall coming towards me. But when he looks up and sees me, he stops, looks awkward and then turns around.

He's ignoring me, too, which is completely understandable. But whatever. I don't have time for this, I need to get home. I grab the book I needed from my locker, closed it and then walked down the hallway to the parking lot.

As soon as I turn the corner, I see Troy coming out of a building carrying a book in one hand and his car keys in the other.

I haven't really seen him today.

He wasn't at school until after lunch so I really haven't had a chance to talk to him.

Now, we're here.

But as soon as I was about to approach him, Lindsey Green did first.

And after a few words were exchanged, he smiled at her, and then led her to his car where she got in.

No.

This isn't happening. Troy's hooking up with her.

His hook ups aren't exclusive to the weekends. I mean, I've walked into his house when he had some girl on his couch hooking up with her. How did that image leave my mind this weekend. How did I forget about what he does, who he is. He hooks up with girls left and right.

Suddenly, I take a seat on the closest bench and realize that I cannot do this with him.

Whatever it is. Or was.

Obviously, he's over it or he's just an asshole like Brady.

This weekend my head was in the clouds and now I'm brought down to earth and I'm realizing that Troy Bolton and I could never, ever work.

I don't even know what I expected today.

Holding hands through campus, kissing, laughing and talking? I mean, it's crazy. I don't even know why I'm feeling this way. Why I'm feeling frustrated and sad and mad about it all. Like, I've seen Troy Bolton in all his glory. He doesn't do girlfriends. He doesn't even go on dates! I don't know what I was thinking, but maybe that's it... I wasn't thinking. I was just so caught up in the fact that someone to Troy Bolton's caliber was kissing me!

Maybe I was in over my head. Maybe I got caught up. Maybe it was too good to even be true.

Troy Bolton doesn't do girlfriends.

And he probably realized that the second we stepped back into reality.

Ugh. Fuck him.


	10. 10) Troy

"Can I change the song?"

"No," I tell Lindsey, putting the volume a little louder to make a point that I want to listen to this song.

She makes a face and then leans back in her seat, bringing one leg up.

She's making herself way too comfortable.

"Thanks again for the ride," she takes out some hand sanitizer from her purse, "I can't believe Callie left me, who does that?"

She's laughing, but I'm not. It's not that funny.

Lindsey Green lives literally down the street from me, a block over. When she asked if I was on my way home, I said yes, not thinking she wanted a ride. So when she asked for one in her follow up question, I couldn't say no. I mean, how much of an asshole would I have been if I said no when her house is so close to mine? Or if I say, never mind, I'm not going home anymore, sorry, find another ride?

Except now, I'm regretting it because she's being too friendly.

But it's my own fault because this is my move. I give girls ride and then we hook up at either my house or their house.

I'm not sure how it started. I just didn't want anything serious and if it's during the week, I can get out of hanging out with them later at night because of homework and shit, you know? So, it's my own fault, but I can still be mad and annoyed about it. Which I am. I hate that I'm giving her a ride.

"Are you busy tonight?" She asks me.

"Yeah, homework."

"Oh, that's too bad, we're going to Canyon's bonfire. Just a few of us, thought you'd want to tag along."

Why would I go to another school's bonfire?

I mean, I have friends that go there, but still, it's not my school.

"Yeah, I don't think so..."

"I know it's a little weird we're crashing, but Sophia's dating a guy that goes there and Mara used to go there so we'd thought we'd go. And Gabriella, I think. That's what Sophia said anyway. Maybe Morgan. We don't have a senior bonfire, so we thought we'd go and see what all the hype's about."

"Gabriella's going?" I ask her, ignoring everything else.

She nods, "I literally just ran into Sophia, before talking to you and she said probably."

Um, okay, this changes this.

All of a sudden, I want to go. I want to hang out with her. I want to see her.

I haven't really seen her today. I had a doctor appointment this morning so I came after lunch and usually on Monday's, she gives Morgan a ride home so didn't want it to be a thing if I walked up to her after school. But if she's going to this bonfire, it's the perfect excuse to run into her and hang out.

I need to be discreet about this, though.

So, when I drop Lindsey off and she's telling me it's a bummer I can't go tonight, I change my mind.

"You know what? I'll stop by for a little bit," I tell her.

"Cool! Text me."

I'm not going to, I think.

But I smile and nod and then drive off.

Today just got better.

* * *

"We need to talk," Emily barges into my room as I'm trying to finish my homework.

"I'm busy, Em."

"Well, you didn't want to talk last night!"

I roll my eyes, "have you talked to Gabriella yet? I'm not the one you need to be talking to. You owe more to her than me, don't you think?"

She closes my door and sits on the end of my bed. "I'm making my rounds."

"You should start with her."

"What the fuck, Troy," she says, "you're my brother! You're supposed to support me unconditionally and here you are taking her away for the weekend, probably telling her all these negative things about me. Like what the fuck. Don't you get that you're my brother!"

"Emily, go away and come talk to me when you get some common sense," I tell her.

But she doesn't.

She's still sitting at the end of my bed.

"What loyalty do you have to Gabriella?!" She asks me, "my God, I know you've been in love with her, but I'm YOUR sister!"

"What?"

She rolls her eyes, "don't fucking play dumb with me."

I'm... not. I'm not denying it, I just didn't know she knew. I mean, I wasn't in love. But obviously, I had this massive crush on her, I had feelings.

"Look, whatever, I don't care if you like her. But the fact that you're so concerned about Gabriella's feelings when I sat in my house and cried for hours after she left... I mean, come on, you're my brother. Don't you care about how I'm feeling? How I was feeling?"

"Someone had to go after her, you didn't. Brady didn't. Someone had to care about her feelings!" I tell her.

"That's not fair. You don't know the story."

I roll my eyes. I don't want to fucking know the story. I'll hate it.

And I don't care.

But whatever, she is my sister and she wants to talk about it, so we'll talk.

"Enlighten me, then."

"Okay," she takes a deep breath and then gets a little more comfortable. "A week before school started, we were all supposed to meet for lunch and then we were going to grab school supplies. But Gabriella canceled last minute and I think she thought we would just leave, but we were hungry so we stayed and it was the first time that we actually talked. I mean, I thought I knew him, but I obviously didn't because we talked a lot and I found out more about him and it was innocent, it really was, but that day, we actually became real friends. Not just friends because of Gabriella. For some reason, it never came up. When Gabriella acted like we had left after she told us she couldn't come, we didn't correct her and we weren't sure why. And then that Friday before school started, Molly Bower had her big back to school party and we were both there and I don't know, it was like something was different. Like, we both had our own reason of why we didn't tell Gabriella and it happened to be the same one- we were attracted to each other. I was freaking out about it. I couldn't. It was my best friend's boyfriend. There is absolutely no way this could be happening. And nothing happened. I avoided him at all costs. But two weeks into school, our teacher sat us right next to each other and it was inevitable that we had to talk. So, we did. And it was just something. I mean, we all know Brady is good looking and smart and rich and all this other shit that makes him Brady. But he's deeper than that and I feel like I saw that side to him and it made me think well, if he's showing me this side, he likes me, right? I don't know. It was bad. I was trying so hard to downplay these feelings, but at the same time, I wanted to actually figure out if they were real so I could try to get rid of them or what so yeah, I inserted myself more. I would hang out with Gabriella and Brady when they'd invite me or whatever instead of saying no. I had to know. And I did. I did like him. I hated it. I hated that fact that I liked a boy my best friend had. And the thing is, I knew Brady wouldn't break up with Gabriella right there and then because he had no idea how I felt and because I know he really did like her. So, for a few weeks, nothing. I just liked him from afar. But then we got stuck with the same topic and our teacher told us to help each other out as much as possible so yeah, we spent days in the library before Gabriella even knew we had the same topic. And one night when he was walking me to my car, he told me he thinks he likes me but he can't do anything about it since he's with Gabriella. I obviously didn't want to. But then he kissed me and it just... it was like nothing I've ever experienced and I got caught up in it. I shouldn't have, but I did. I pretended like I didn't, like it was totally okay and I tried to shake it off and act like it was all good and I was perky and happy around him and Gabriella. And I even canceled our library dates. Until Ben's party. When Gabriella left and Brady took me home, it happened again. And I wanted to say no, in my mind, but my heart told me to just go for it and I did and he makes me feel soooo good. I can't even describe it, Troy. I really do like him and I think he really does like me and I know it's fucked up and not fair, but I can't help who I like."

"But you can help how you handle things," I tell her, "and you handled it really shitty."

She takes a deep breath, "I didn't know how."

I want to roll my eyes, but I refrain. "I get liking someone and you can't help it. You can't help who you like sometimes, but you can control yourself. You didn't have to be around him after he kissed you. Obviously that led to the sneaking around and getting caught."

"But it's not something that I wanted, it just happened like that!"

"You cant justify it like them, Em. You weren't on drugs, you weren't drunk, no one held a gun to your held telling you to sneak around with him."

"I wasn't trying to!"

Okay, now I roll my eyes. "You were swimming around in the pool without a care in the world. You knew what you were doing, you wanted it. You wanted to be with Brady and you weren't going to tell Gabriella about it until God knows when."

Emily sighs, like a sad puppy or something. "I get I fucked up, but I'm not apologizing for my feelings. We want to be together."

"Why didn't you go after Gabriella?"

"She didn't want to see me! It's not like she yelled, but I know that look, she was pretty pissed."

"Okay, then why didn't you call or text her?"

She looks annoyed at my questions, but obviously, I need to know all of this. "I was giving her, her space Troy. She didn't want to talk to me. I'm not going to talk to her when she's not even going to respond, you know?"

It's such bullshit. Either she doesn't really care or she's just scared. And I'd get if she was scared or nervous about it.

"Do you feel good about Brady picking up?" I ask, not caring if she even gets mad.

"What?"

"You heard me..."

She looked confused. "What the fuck does that even mean?"

I shrug, "look, I'm jealous of Gabriella, too. She's, like, the best person and she doesn't even have to try hard at it. Was any of this for selfish reasons? Like, you got the guy your best friend had for once and it made you feel so much better about yourself?"

"I can't believe you're saying this to me right now," she looks so offended, "fuck you. No, of course not, you idiot. That's really fucked up."

"So you really like him?"

"Yes," she says, "I really, really do, Troy."

I think about what Gabriella said, like what if they're meant to be and it seemed like she would be okay with that.

So, I tell her that she needs to talk to Gabriella about this.

"Okay," she tells me.

And then she walks out of my room.

Oh man.


	11. 11) Gabriella

"Are you okay? You seem a little out of it," Sophia tells me.

"I'm fine."

I just didn't know we were coming to this thing with Lindsey Green and Mara Hill. I know she's friends with them, it just took me back a bit.

It reminded me of this afternoon when Lindsey got in the car with Troy.

I'm so mad and I don't even know if I have the grounds to be mad. I mean, we kissed. And we decided to just figure it out and take it one day at a time but guess that day is up for him. I'm not going to hold my breath for Troy Bolton. It wouldn't have worked out, anyway.

So, whatever, I push aside thoughts of him.

And try to have fun.

But when I see Pete O'Connell, I kick myself in the head that I forgot he came here.

"How are you?" He asks me.

"I'm fine," I give him a smile, "how are you doing?"

"I'm fine, too," he nods, "do you want something to drink? I mean, this is a little weird that you're here, but it's great, I haven't see you in a while."

Pete and I had a small thing.

At the beginning of this year, we met at a basketball game. Our schools were playing against each other and he sat next to me on the bleacher and we striked up a conversation and it was good enough to go on a date with him. We hung out quite a bit afterward. I mean, we dated. We weren't boyfriend and girlfriend, nothing was exclusive, but we dated. And he was nice enough, but there wasn't that spark there. I started hanging out with Brady a few short weeks after and then just completely cut Pete off because we weren't friends to begin with so it wasn't necessary to keep in contact.

But he was nice. And he was a really good kisser, to be honest. It just never really went anywhere.

It's nice seeing him. I just don't want it to be awkward.

"No boyfriend tonight?"

"No," I shake my head with a small laugh, "um, actually we broke up."

"Really?"

I nod, "yeah, long story. But yeah."

He gave me a small smile, "well, now I'm not feeling guilty talking to some other guy's girl. Even though I'm sure Brady was confident enough."

Looking back, he didn't give a shit if I talked to guys or not. Probably because he was talking to multiple girls probably, I don't know. Or yeah, because he was way too confident and he thought I couldn't get better than him if I tried. Whatever. I don't want to think about it.

"Maybe," I shrug, not really having an answer.

"Well, come on, let me get you a drink," he tells me, "or do you want some food?"

"Just a water."

We walk over to some of his friend and I say hi to the ones I know and grab a water from him.

Pete is a really nice guy. I'm sad there was no spark there because I think he could have been a great boyfriend even if we weren't different schools. It was kind of exciting because we weren't around each other all day every day so when we saw each other, the excitement was real. At least for me.

And being around him reminds me that we had a good time. I mean, do you really need a spark to have a nice relationship?

What does the spark even signify?

I know I felt it with Troy, but I don't want to think about that.

Because Troy's a jackass who doesn't do girlfriends.

"So, how's school going? Have you sent in your applications yet or are you waiting til the deadline?" Pete tells me as we're walking to the bathroom.

"Eh, yeah, I'm still deciding on a couple of schools. How about you?"

"All sent."

I smile at her. He really is so cute. And so nice. "You're on top of it. What schools? Berkeley?"

He nods, "yeah, yeah, that's still my top choice. But who knows if I'll get in. So of course I have back ups. UCI is great and not too far. UCLA, USC. I threw a couple of East Coast schools because the thought seems nice, but who knows. What about you? Brown?"

"Yeah, I'm applying there, but who knows."

"I'm sure you'll get in," he tells me, "you know you're getting in."

I laugh, "who knows."

And then he waits outside for me as I use the bathroom. And I think about how nice he's being after I just cut him off like nothing.

Maybe there are nice guys in the world and I should be with them, not assholes.

Which include Troy and Brady.

So when I come out of the bathroom and Pete's standing off to the side, looking out into the ocean and looking as cute as even, I do something I never thought I'd do again with him... I kiss him.

He immediately kisses back and it feels nice. There's still no spark. But it feels nice. And right in this moment.

But when he started moving his hands through my hair, Troy's face flashed across my mind.

Not Brady's.

Troy's. Troy's stupid face.

I don't even know what this means, but I hate it. I hate how I'm thinking about Troy right now. I hate how I can't let go of that night.

Because I really want to. It felt so good and so right, but we both know it's not going to work. He's off with girls like Lindsey and I'm not that kind of girl. He doesn't do girlfriends and dates and I do. I do boyfriends. And maybe he thought he could change, or maybe he thought I'd be okay with it since I knew that about him, but I'm not. I'm not okay with it. I'm not okay with it at all.

But that doesn't mean I should just go back to Pete because he's nice. Because he'd be the safe choice.

So, I pull away and apologize to him.

I can't do this. I can't lead him on again. I shouldn't have kissed him. It wasn't right.

Fuck.

Fuck Troy Bolton.

* * *

I never knew how much I liked Troy Bolton.

Kissing Pete last night was a mistake, but it did make me realize that these feelings for Troy are very much real.

Which is crazy.

Last week, my thoughts weren't consumed by him. I didn't think about kissing him or how it felt kissing him. And ever since Sunday night, it's all I've been thinking about. I fucking hate it because I know I shouldn't. I know it's not a good idea yet here I am, sitting in Calculus thinking about him.

Probably because I have a direct view of him and he's fucking hot.

I haven't talked to him.

And I'm not sure if I even want to.

Yes, the kiss with Pete last night made me realize things, but it doesn't change things. Troy is still Troy. He still hung out with Lindsey yesterday. And he'll probably want to hang out with some other girl today or tomorrow, who fucking knows.

All night, I thought about him. How being with him would be like. If it would be great, a let down, if we'd have all these ups or downs.

But I don't want to get ahead of myself right now.

I don't even know if anything could happen, if he wants it to happen.

Or if I want it to happen.

Suddenly, the bell rang and school was officially over and we were free to go home, thank God.

When I get home, my mom is sitting in the kitchen sealing some envelopes.

"Oh Gabriella, good, you're home," she says before searching through a box next to her and pulling out a couple invitations she just sealed, I'm guessing. "Do you mind delivering these? They're for Morgan's family, the Bolton's, and the Carter's. I don't want to send these out."

"For your anniversary party? I thought these went out already?"

"Well, yeah, but for relatives and friends that would have to drive. These are local. I'm finishing these up and will deliver them myself."

I'm confused. "Well, why can't you with these?"

I don't want to go to Troy's.

"Kerry is meeting me in five minutes so I can't leave the house and I told these people I'd give it to them."

"Mom, no, I'm busy... I have homework to do. I'm sure a day won't hurt."

"Gabriella, go..."

Fuccccck. I don't want to go. I don't want to go. I DON'T WANT TO GO. "Mom, they know about the party, they're your closest friends. Who cares about them having an actual invitation to it."

My mom finishes addressing the envelopes and then gets up. "Rebecca wants one. Just go. Emily isn't home. She volunteers today."

I know she does and that's not the issue here.

But I can't tell my mom the real reason I don't want to go over.

She can keep thinking it's because of Emily, but it's because of Troy. I wouldn't give a shit if Emily opened the door. I'd just hand her the invitation and then leave. But with Troy, it's more complicated. He's ignoring me, I'm ignoring him and I think we're just pretending this weekend didn't happen.

"Fine," I tell my mom, grabbing the invites.

And within five minutes, I'm standing in front of the Boltons' house and I realize I don't need to interact with them.

I was about to slip the invite into the mailbox when the front door opened.

Troy.

He was standing there.

"Did you knock?" He asks me.

"No," I shake my head, "um, I didn't think anyone was home. I was just dropping this off..."

"Oh," he takes it from me, "thanks, I'll give it to my mom."

I'm not sure why he opened the door. Maybe because I was making a lot of noise or because I parked in their driveway. I mean, no one's car was parked around so I really thought no one was home. Well, I knew Rebecca was probably home because her and Em are sharing a car right now and Em had her car at school today. I just didn't really want to get caught up talking to her so I was just going to put it in the mailbox and run away.

But now, I don't think I really can.

Actually, I can. I turn around to leave, but Troy calls my name, which makes me turn back around. God, he's so hot. Like, really, really hot.

"So, that's it?" He asks me, "you're just going to live happily every after with Pete?"

"What?"

He laughed, "you hooked up with him last night."

How did he know that?

I didn't tell anyone. Well, I told Morgan, but that was it. And she would never, ever say anything. No one saw, I don't think. Did he tell people and if he did, how in the hell did it get back to Troy so quickly? But whatever, I don't owe him anything. I don't owe him an explanation.

"So what if I did?" I ask him with a shrug, "why do you even care? You hooked up with Lindsey."

"Lindsey?"

"Don't play dumb," I roll my eyes, "I saw you two yesterday."

He suddenly looks like a deer caught in headlights. Well, not really, he just looks surprised that I know. "Look, nothing happened."

I laugh, "okay, Troy, sure."

"I didn't hook up with her. She needed a ride home, she lives down the street."

"I don't care," I tell him, "you can do whatever you want with your life because you being with Lindsey reminded me that it's what you do. You hook up with girls and you don't care and I just want no part of that."

"So, what? You saw me and Lindsey together so you went and hooked up with Pete a few hours later?"

"No," I lie. It definitely steered me in that direction, but I'm not going to tell him that. "Pete and I used to have a thing. How do you even know!?"

He looked me right in the eyes.

Which was a little intimidating to be honest. But it also gave me major butterflies.

"I saw you guys."

"You were there last night?" I ask him.

He nods, "yeah, which I guess was a good thing."

I roll my eyes, "fuck you, Troy. Yesterday, you reminded me of why you annoy me so much. It's because you don't give a shit about girls. You hook up with them left and right and I want no part of that. I got sucked in for a minute, but you can do whatever the fuck you want with your life and I'll do what I want with my life which means hooking up with Pete if I want to, he knows how to actually treat a girl."

I'm not sure why I said that.

I have absolutely no intention of hanging out with Pete. Maybe I just wanted to make him jealous or make him think I'm not pining over him.

"Whatever," he tells me looking pissed that I just insulted him. "Are we done here? I need to go."

I didn't say anything.

I turned around and got in my car.

Fuck him.


	12. 12) Troy

Fuck this.

Yesterday, I was on cloud nine.

And today, I'm so fucking confused and annoyed and mad that Gabriella has already made up her mind.

I didn't hook up with Lindsey, but she won't listen.

I'm not going to sit here and try to convince her of that after she hooked up with Pete. What she said... sure, it hurt. It hurt that she views me like that even though it is true. But after kissing her, after knowing this could be a possibility, every single thought of hooking up with another girl went out the window.

"Dude, what's up?"

"Nothing," I tell Chase who I chucked the basketball at a little too hard.

He shot the ball and the rebounded it and didn't let it go. "Don't give me that bullshit. What's up?"

I grabbed the ball from him and shot it.

And when I missed, I grabbed it again and chucked it at the wall.

"What's up is that I fucking hooked up with Gabriella this weekend and I can't fucking stop thinking about her, but she thinks I hooked up with Lindsey Green so it doesn't even matter because she went and hooked up with Pete O'Connell so fuck this bullshit. This is why I don't get feelings."

"You hooked up with Gabriella!?"

"Yes!" I basically yell at him, "so fucking stupid."

He grabbed the ball and kind of just stood there, looking at me. "Seriously, you guys hooked up?"

I took the ball away from him and shot it. "YES! WE DID."

"Okay, sorry."

"Well, I fucking told you already."

"Look, dude, if you're obviously this upset, you care about it. You care about her. And you and I both know you have for a while. So, just go for it. Cut the bullshit, cut the random hookups and tell her how you feel. Tell her you want her."

"It's not that easy I want her, but I just don't know if I can have her... or if I can do enough to keep her," I tell him.

Chase sighs, grabbing his water to take a sip.

He's my best friend. I tell him everything. And even though I haven't told him about my feelings for her, he knew. I just didn't tell anyone.

Because I didn't think about it.

But now it's all I think about. For the past two days, since we hooked up, it's all I've been thinking about. And I can't stop. I want to, but I can't and I don't know what to fucking do about it. I've never been in this place before. I've never really laid in bed and thought about a girl until a day ago. And I just want it to be easy. I want it to be simple. But because of how I've been, her probably having trust issues now, it can't.

"If it's right and she's the girl for you, you just will," he tells me.

"You think so?"

He nods, "you'll figure it out. You obviously really like her and when it's real and genuine, you just make it happen because you really want it to happen."

I guess maybe he's right.

But I just feel like that's out the window now.

Fuck.

* * *

"Do you want some of this?"

I look up and see Emily standing there with a bowl of cake batter. "No, thanks."

She's about to walk away, but then she stops.

"Are you okay?"

"What?" I look up at her again, taken aback a bit. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Because you don't look okay," she tells me, setting the bowl down on the coffee table and taking a seat, "look, I know things are weird between us still and you're probably still mad at me, but I'm your sister... you can talk to me about anything."

I appreciate that, but I'm okay. "I'm fine, Em. There's nothing to talk about."

She's still sitting there, but I ignore her and look back down at my calculus homework, trying to figure out the problem to this stupid question.

"But I don't think you are."

"Well, then, I guess I just don't want to talk about it."

"Is it about Gabriella?" She asks me.

I close my book, not even being able to concentrate anymore and toss it to the side, "nothing's wrong, Emily, I'm fine!"

Before I could even get up, she shoots me down again. "I don't believe you. Something happened between you guys. Did you guys hook up? Because yesterday when she was coming into the hall, you immediately closed your locker and ran out. And two days ago when you entered the library, she snuck out through the side. You guys may be ignoring me, but I'm still paying attention and I can clearly see something's up."

"Look, there's just some things I want to keep for myself," I tell her, "and this is one of them. I'm fine. I really am. I'm just stressed about this work."

"So, you guys did hook up?"

Fuck. She's not letting this thing go. She wants to know.

And I don't even know why I don't want to tell her. Maybe I'm still mad at her.

Or maybe because it's an awkward situation.

"So what?"

"Obviously, it didn't go well."

"It went fine," I tell her, remembering that night again. But to be fair, I think about it every day since it happened. "It's just not realistic."

She gave me a small smile. "Why, because you're this player and she's a serial monogamous?"

I roll my eyes, "and to think I was about to talk to you about it..."

"Troy, come on..."

"We're just... it's not going to work."

"I think it can," she tells me, surprising me, "I'm not an idiot. I've seen the way you look at her. All the times you annoyed me and her, it was your way of hiding your feelings or else you would have been flirting with her and you couldn't have that so you annoyed her instead. But the thing is, I'm not just saying this to push her in the direction of another guy, but I think it can work. I think she's great and despite what I've told you and all the dumb jokes, I think you're great too and you just need to find the right girl to be able to show them that you're great. And I think she could be it."

All of this is nice. I love my sister. To death. That'll never change just because she did something so shitty. I can forgive and move on.

I get what she's saying.

But I just don't know if it can happen. It's complicated.

"Stop thinking it can't work. Stop having that mentality and fight for her if you really like her."

"It's not that easy, Em. She's..."

"She's scared and she's confused and you're giving her every reason to justify her decision to walk away from this because you're not there convincing her you like her, telling her you don't want to hurt her. Liking someone isn't easy, but it's worth it if it's the right person."

She's... right.

I'm not there trying to convince her. I walked away.

Because truth is, I'm scared, too.

I'm scared that I'll fuck it up if she were to give me that chance. I'm scared I'm not going to live up to her standards. I'm scared there's someone better for her.

But I can't fucking stop thinking about her.

I need to try.


	13. 13) Gabriella

"Hey, can I talk to you?"

I turn around and see Emily standing there, holding onto her books and looking nervous.

Well, it's about fucking time she asks.

"Yeah?"

"I don't know if I want to do this here, do you want to come over?"

"No," I tell her. Fuck no, I do not want to come over. I'm not talking to Troy, this is the first time I'm talking to Emily. "Talk to me right now."

She looks around the parking lot. There's no one really.

I get that it's not the most ideal place to talk, but if she wants to talk, we'll talk right now. I don't need to drive ten minutes, two miles, one block to see what she has to say. Anything she has to say to me, she can say right now. Or else there's really no point.

"I'm sorry," she tells me.

"Yeah," I laugh. "You really seem sorry."

"I wanted to give you a little bit of space. I know how angry you were."

I roll my eyes, "cut the bullshit, Em. You don't really care."

She looks insulted. "How can you tell me I don't care!? You're my best friend! Of course I fucking care, Gabriella."

"When were you caring, huh? When you hooked up with my boyfriend? When you were so excited I was leaving Ben's party early so you two can hook up, flirt all your want? OR when you were having a pool party because you guys were in the clear?"

"I know, I know, I'm so sorry. It wasn't like this orchestrated thing. It happened and I tried to fight it, I really, really did..."

"You went behind my back."

"It just happened," she repeats, "I didn't..."

I roll my eyes again. I'm more worked up than I think I normally would be.

And it's because other shit is going on in my life. Like the fact that for the past week, I've still been tinkling about her stupid fucking brother.

It's so annoying.

A week and two days have pasted since I found all this out.

"It's not even about Brady. It's not about losing a boyfriend, this great love. It's about me being the best fucking friend to you and you disregarding that. It's about disrespecting me and not even coming to me, feeling like you could talk to me about it," I tell her.

"Oh, so if I would have come to you and say, hey, I like Brady, you would have been all, well, he's my boyfriend, but okay. And be totally okay?"

"Obviously, it'd be a fucking weird situation!"

"THEN!?"

I relax for a minute and take a deep breath to compose myself.

And then I try to talk to her about the way it made me feel. "It really wasn't about him."

"I'm sorry. I really, really am."

"I just don't understand why. I've never done anything to hurt you. I said no to Jason Seller for you. I didn't go to Sasha Pierce's party for you..."

"Oh, do not go there," she says, "don't fucking act like I owe you the world because you did that for me. I was fine. I'm a big girl. It's not about you all the fucking time, Gabriella. Brady liked me too. It wasn't just me coming onto him. And maybe you can't handle that.."

I'm taken aback for a moment. Is she serious?

Really?

"Wait, I'm sorry, are you trying to apologize to me or make me more mad?"

"I really, really am sorry for how things happened and I didn't tell you or talk to you. But I'm not sorry about my feelings. They're so fucking real."

"You waited almost two weeks."

She nods, "I know. I don't know. I just... it's hard."

It is hard.

And I fucking hate this. I feel like I've lost two friends. Her and Troy.

"Maybe we just need a break from each other," I tell her, "if Brady makes you happy then he makes you happy and I'm not going to stand in the way of that, but I can't pretend like you didn't hurt me. I can't pretend like all of this didn't happen. I appreciate your apology."

"Okay, that's fair enough," she says.

I don't really know where to go from here, if we'll ever get back to the place we once were.

But at least we talked.

"I know it's none of my business, but you and Troy... I think if you just have a little faith, go with your heart, it could be this crazy good thing. It could work."

"What?"

She shrugs, "I know you don't think so, but I know."

I'm not sure what that even means. I don't know if I can do that. If I can just have a little faith and get rid of all my doubts about him.

It's really hard to do.

Which sucks.

Because I can't fucking stop thinking about him.

* * *

I'm supposed to be having fun.

It's my mom and dad's 20th wedding anniversary and we're having this big party.

But I'm not.

Instead, I'm sitting in the garden of this place on a bench, hoping time goes by faster so I can just go home and go to sleep.

Because when I'm sleeping, I'm not thinking about anything.

Emily's inside. She didn't bring Brady. I know they're officially dating now, but she didn't bring him. And I haven't really talked to her. I said hi, but that was it. Troy didn't come. Which is understandable. Sure, he loves my parents and they love him, but it'd be awkward.

My family's here, a whole bunch of our friends, Morgan's family is here, too.

But I just needed a small break.

For the past three weeks, my life has been such a roller coaster. I was so down about Emily and Brady then I was up about Troy. And now I'm down.

"Do you want some company?" I suddenly hear.

I turn to my left and see Troy Bolton standing there, a small smile on his beautiful face.

Fuck.

Maybe I shouldn't.

"Sure," I find myself saying, scooting over.

"Why aren't you inside with everyone else?" He asks me.

"Why are you here?" I ask him.

I'm not sure how it came out. I'm not sure if he thinks I'm mad he's here or just genuinely asking because it didn't seem like he was coming. I mean, it's good he's here. He could celebrate this night with my parents who love him and stuff. I don't even know how I really feel about it.

I think I'm just trying to distance myself for enough time that our hook up seems like so long ago, it doesn't even seem right to be mad about, you know?

We should get back into a place where we could be the friends we were.

Or at least be able to be around each other.

I don't know, though.

It's fucking hard because of how insanely attracted I am to him. And how I realized these feelings for him were always there. I mean, that's the only explanation for feeling so strongly about him so soon. After one night of being together.

"Your parents invited me," he says.

"I mean, why are you out here?" I reword it so he doesn't think I'm such a bitch for asking in the first place.

"Because I want to talk to you. And you're out here."

I get butterflies.

He wants to talk to me.

We're going to talk about that night, about Pete, about Lindsey probably.

Or maybe we're just going to talk about how this isn't a thing and we shouldn't be so awkward around each other because it barely lasted anything. It was one night where we hooked up and I think we're acting like it was weeks and weeks. It's silly. Maybe we should just get over it.

But like I said, it's fucking hard. I still think about him.

"I'm sorry," I tell him, "I had no right to get mad about Lindsey. You didn't promise me anything and..."

"I didn't hook up with Lindsey."

I stayed quiet. I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to shoot him down because we're trying to move forward right now, I think. SO, I didn't say anything.

And he took it upon himself to say something more. "And I don't want you thinking I did. I'm not mad, I'm not upset about it anymore that you think I did because of how things were, but I really want you to know that I didn't hook up with her."

Looking into his eyes and him looking into mine... I believe him.

I really do.

And now I feel really bad.

"Okay," I say, "but that doesn't change the fact that you and I could very well not work. Our mentalities are different."

"Any relationship could not work," he says.

Which is true.

But I'm talking about this one. I want to know if it's worth fighting for.

And I'm not sure that it really is.

"You know, in 9th grade, when you went to formal with Tim, it was the first time I looked at you and thought, I think I like this girl. My mom noticed and quickly shut it down. She thought it just wouldn't be a good idea. Guys don't date their sister's girlfriends. And then in 11th grade, when we all went to Jenny's 17th birthday party, her golden birthday that she threw a big party for, when you were sitting out here in the garden of this exact place just staring out, I realized that I wanted to be sitting out there with you, giving you my jacket, asking you what was wrong. But I couldn't. No. How awkward would it be? You had so many guys to choose from anyway, everyone was lining up for you. I pushed it away. I didn't think it was these real feelings. And then everything happened and it made sense and it felt right. This isn't... this isn't something that just happened for me and I'm going to roll with it, see what happens. This is something I've known for a while and if I have it, even just a little piece, I want to fight for it. I want you to believe me and I want you to see that I am in this with you."

I feel like I'm about to pass out over what he just said to me. All of it. Every single word.

Troy Bolton liked me.

He still likes me. And I still like him.

And the fact that I never realized I did is making me so upset.

If this is all true, which I actually really believe, it makes sense. Summer before senior year is when he started hooking up with girls left and right.

So much.

But he wanted me first.

And it never happened. I never realized it.

"I didn't even know you were there that night... that night we left for formal," I tell him, "you weren't there..."

"Yeah, well, I was... in the background for a minute or two."

The thing is this...

If Troy Bolton went through on the times he wanted to go through, I would have jumped in his arms. I really would have. Did I realize my feelings up until a few weekends ago? I'm not sure. I think it might have come to my mind that he's hot and funny and what being with him would be like, but until he said something, until something happened, nothing really registered and I think that would have been the case a few years ago. Maybe even before Brady.

This could be something. I know it can.

And sitting here with him right now, all I want is to be together. To figure it all out together.

"I don't care," I tell him.

And by the look on his face, I figure I should finish my thought.

So, I do.

"I don't care if you hurt me or not. I think I'd rather try than not try at all. I'd rather be hurt by you than not. I didn't even know how badly I wanted this. And the fact that you... we could have had something. And I don't care if it's awkward or it ends badly because I don't think I can really fight this any longer."

"I've never had a girlfriend," he tells me, "I'm not sure I'll be any good at it."

"You don't have to be perfect."

He gives me a small smile, "but I want to."

That's more than enough for me, really. The fact that he wants to try.

"You know," I turn my whole body towards him, "these past few weeks, I should have thought about Emily and Brady and how they hurt me and how I felt so betrayed by them, but instead, I was thinking about you."

"You were?"

"Yes," I tell him, "and that was indicative of how I feel, of how badly I just want to try, how I just want to be with you."

Troy smiles at me, coming closer.

It's crazy how this is all happening now

A month ago, I never would have thought this was possible. Ever. But it is.

"Me too," he tells me in a whisper before moving in closer. "so, let's do this. Let's try it."

"Okay," I nod.

And then we seal it with a kiss.

The most perfect kiss.


	14. 14) Troy

I'm on cloud nine.

And I'm not sure when I'm getting off.

"Troy!"

"Sorry, what?" I get out of my head and look over at Gabriella, "yeah?"

She gives me a weird look and a laugh, "you okay?"

I nod. I was just thinking about how I'm on cloud nine because of you, but you know, I don't really want to tell her that.

Maybe we can be cheesy and stuff with each other, but I don't want to freak her out. I know we have genuine feelings for each other and it's been a few weeks since that night of her parents anniversary party, but moving too fast might freak her out a little bit.

"Yeah, I'm fine, what's up?"

"Nothing, I'm done," she says, "we can go."

I laugh, getting up of the sofa couch I was sitting on in this store while she was shopping around. "I'm fine just sitting here, you know..."

Gabriella shrugs, "and you're great for that, but I couldn't find anything."

She's not a big shopper. I mean, she shops around obviously for clothes, but she doesn't take hours like Emily.

Which is why I'm completely okay coming with her.

"Where to now?"

"Lunch?" She asks, "I'm starving."

"Me too," I push the door open for us to exit. "Down for sushi?"

She agrees. Sushi it is.

As we're walking through Fashion Valley, this shopping center in San Diego, Gabriella reaches for my hand and intertwines our fingers. Something that's been happening almost every single day we're walking anywhere... except school. She grabs my hand, or wraps her arm around mine and we walk. And it's my favorite thing because it feels right. And it feels good. And I feel like she's mine and I'm hers.

The thing I like most about this transition... from being friends to being more than friends... is that it's been so easy. It's not the least bit awkward.

And we hang out all the time. Every day.

"My parents are going to Mexico," she tells me as our waitress took our drink order.

"Why? And when?"

She opens up her menu and shrugs, "for fun. The Powells invited them. Next weekend. For four days, I think."

I open up my menu, too, "well, that's fun. You staying at home?"

"Probably. Morgan will stay with me or something. My brother said he might come home that weekend, but it's not for sure."

"How are him and his girlfriend?"

"Ugh so cute," she puts her menu down for a second, "I hate that I've only met her a couple of times when I've gone up there, but they seem happy. He tells me they're happy. And they really do make a cute couple. She seems really nice, too."

I loved her brother. We were great friends.

And he was away at school studying business at UCI. It's not far, but far enough where you can't see him every weekend, which is probably hard for her.

They're close.

"We should head up there one of these weekends," I suggest.

"You want to?" She smiles.

"Yeah, haven't seen Jake in forever and it's not far. We can make a little weekend out of it."

She closes her menu and slides it to the edge of the table, "you know what he told me a couple days ago? I forgot to tell you. But he had a dream that you and I were dating. It was a while ago, but he never told me because he didn't know if I'd find it extremely awkward or not and he felt kind of uncomfortable telling me about it. I thought it was funny. And well... kind of crazy."

I laugh, also closing my menu, deciding on a simple Alaskan roll. "I've had that dream before. Twice, actually."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, obviously, I felt weird about it."

"And it came true. It's like making a wish," she smiles at me.

God, she's so beautiful.

I tell myself this at least five times a day, but it's true. She is. And I can't believe I'm dating her.

The other day I had this moment where I just stood back for a second and couldn't believe what was happening. I went over to have dinner and when she opened the door, she kissed me and then we casually sat on the floor of her living room eating spaghetti. Everything about it felt right and how it would feel to be in a relationship with someone... how easy it felt. And casual. And how it didn't seem like work at all. We were just there, enjoying each other's company and it felt so good. It felt like the real deal. And I could not believe I was dating her. Kissing her. Holding her hand.

It hasn't even been this weird adjustment.

Maybe a bit.

But only in regards to Emily because they're still not exactly back to being friends.

My mom and dad, though, her parents... they're fine with it.

In fact, we all went to dinner a couple nights ago and it wasn't awkward acknowledging that we were a thing. It wasn't weird in any way.

It's kind of crazy how it's not.

"You know the waitress was checking you out."

"What?"

Gabriella laughs, grabbing her iced tea the waitress just put down. "She was totally just staring at you."

I laugh, shaking my head, "well, I was busy staring at you."

"Stop," she says with a smile.

"I was."

Honestly, I could stare at her all day long.

Gabriella takes a sip of her iced tea and then pushes it away, "I'm not sure if this is true. You haven't told me anything about it, not that you had to, but last night, my mom asked if I was ever the least bit interested in going to schools up north like you are. Did you apply to any?"

"Um, yeah, as back ups... I mean, there's a 90% chance I'm not getting into Brown."

"You don't need to do that."

"Do what?"

She shrugs, "act like you were going behind my back because you weren't. We're... I don't know. I just..."

I interrupt, "it's a weird situation, I don't know how to feel."

"It's nice to imagine how things would be, but the reality of it is, we don't know. I think we just have to take it one day at a time."

"Yeah, you're right."

Any two people who are just starting to date wouldn't base their college on where the other person is going. I mean, it's been like three weeks. But it's so different for us. We've been friends for years. We know each other. Like at the core. It's heightened. And I'm not saying I'll choose a school next to her if we both don't get into Brown, but I don't think it's totally weird for thinking about her in the process.

A few days ago, we had to submit our college applications and she was in the back of my mind. I think about what would happen between us.

But she's right. We have to take it one day at a time.

Today, I'll enjoy sushi with her.

* * *

"Yeah?" I respond to the knocking on my door.

Emily pops her head in, "busy?"

I shake my head, throwing my phone, "not really. Just finishing up some homework."

"You hungry?"

"Um, I'm grabbing food in a little bit."

"Oh okay," she says, coming in a little more, "um, with Gabriella?"

I nod. I still feel a little awkward talking about it. It's been more than a month since everything's happened, but it's not an ideal situation.

Em gives me a small smile.

And then turns away to walk out of my room.

"Wait, Em," I call out to her. She immediately stops and turns to face me. "Um, are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

My sister and I have always been close. Not the kind of close where we'd do everything together, but close enough where we'd talk about things, what was bothering us, we'd confide in each other. And lately, it hasn't been that way, obviously. I forgive and forget, but she's been distancing herself from me as well so we haven't really talked this past month. Here and there, but it's not like it was before. And I do miss her.

I close my book and push myself off my bed. "You can talk to me, Em."

"It hasn't really felt that way."

"I'm sorry," I apologize because I do honestly feel bad about kind of icing her out. "Everything has just sort of been weird and..."

"It's my fault," she shakes her head, "I'm to blame."

Maybe.

I mean, sure, but if she didn't do what she did, I'm not sure I'd be with Gabriella right now.

And I'm so fucking happy.

"Look, shit happens. You're not a malicious person. I know that, Gabriella knows that and I think with her, she just needs time. As for me and you, we're good. You're my sister and I love you and you handled things shitty, but people make mistakes and then we move on from it. Shit happens."

"Yeah and I fucking regret it so much," she says, "I'm so sorry."

These past few days, even though we're not talking like we used to, I could sense something was wrong with her.

It just looks like something's wrong.

"Are you okay?"

"No," she shakes her head, "I'm so fucking miserable."

"What's wrong?" I ask her.

She sighs, coming towards me, taking a seat at the end of my bed, "everything. I lost my best friend. The guy I thought I really liked, I don't think I do. School is fucking stressful. Everything is falling apart and it's all my fucking fault and I don't even know why I let it all happen. It shouldn't have happened."

I feel bad for her because she does seem remorseful. And she's not looking for pity. That's something about my sister... she never wants to be pittied.

"I don't feel sorry for myself," she continues, "I just hate everything I've done."

"People make mistakes," I remind her.

She laughs, "I betrayed the one person who was always there for me, big or small. Always."

True.

They had their differences and they're not the most alike, but they were best friends and they were constantly there for each other.

"What did you mean about Brady? Things aren't working out?"

"It's... I don't know."

I can tell she doesn't really want to talk about that part because she's probably embarrassed about it. She betrayed her best friend for nothing. For a guy she thought was this great guy and she was head over heels for him. I think she feels a little silly about it, but she doesn't have to. I'm here for her.

And I really want her to know that. "Em, you can tell me anything, you know that."

"He's just not ready for a committed relationship."

"Oh," I say.

"He fucked some girl in LA a few weekends ago and it actually made me laugh. Of course he did. Why would I be the exception?"

Oh God. I fucking hate this guy.

Not only did he hurt Gabriella, but not he hurt my sister. It's not okay.

"What you did was fucked up and shit, but the fact that he cheated on Gabriella and now you, it has nothing to do with you guys and I hope you know that. He's the asshole. He's the one with a problem. And you can do so much better than him, honestly."

"Why don't you hate me?" She asks me, "you should."

"What?" I laugh.

She shrugs, "I've been so fucked up these past couple of months. I really hurt Gabriella and I'm glad you were there for her."

I agree with her, "yeah, you hurt her."

"How is she? I mean, she's probably fine. She has you and..."

"I'm not going to be this middle man and I know you want to give her space, but you and I both know Gabriella is the most forgiving person. Don't rush it."

"I don't deserve a second chance, honestly," Em shrugs and she's not saying it in a way where she wants you to feel bad for her. She's saying it in a way where she hinks it's the truth. "Regardless of what you think, I really do want her to be happy."

I smile at her. I know she does.

What she did was shitty. But I know the love my sister has for Gabriella.

It's deep.

And sooner or later, I know they'll be friends again.

But you can't rush it.


End file.
